


Connection Interrupted

by Thea_Annette



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst with a Happy Ending, Author only does happy endings, Bazine needs to get over herself, Cassian and Jyn are basically Rey's parents, Devoted Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Did I Mention Angst?, Eventual Happy Ending, F/M, Fluff and Angst, Misunderstanding, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Poe Dameron is a Good Friend, Protective Ben Solo, Protective Rey (Star Wars), Rey doesn't put up with crap, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, This just got intense, U.S. Marshals, Violence, Witness Protection, both middle and high school are mentioned, neither does ben, references to human trafficking, the course of true love never did run smooth
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-01
Updated: 2021-03-06
Packaged: 2021-03-18 19:08:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 17
Words: 33,886
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29123181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Thea_Annette/pseuds/Thea_Annette
Summary: Soulmate bonds are a precious (and occasionally fragile) thing, and something that Ben Solo was beginning to believe he would never have. That is until a voice in the back of his head wakes him up one morning worrying about a math test.*Quick author's note - this originally had the wrong relationship tagged. All tags are correct now.*
Relationships: Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren, Zorii Bliss/Poe Dameron
Comments: 154
Kudos: 201
Collections: Ijustfellintothissendhelp





	1. 18 years old (Ben) / 13 years old (Rey)

**Author's Note:**

> Well yikes. This school year is kicking my butt and is draining my brain of its creative juices. I have not abandoned Makeover My Heart. I just need to step away from it for a little while and get back on track. This particular story has been sitting on my computer in pieces since like September; so I decided to finish it up since it basically is done (some of which is done in my head) and just needs some fill in. My plan is to alternate weekends between this one and Makeover My Heart. In the meantime, enjoy Connection Interrupted.
> 
> This is based on a writing prompt I saw on Pinterest a very long time ago. I tried finding it again but it is solid gone. It suggested writing about soulmates that could hear each other's thoughts, and their first interaction should be over a math test.

_I am so going to fail this math test._

The terrified thought startled Ben completely out of sleep. His alarm had gone off probably twenty minutes prior, but, as per usual, he had hit the snooze button a couple times too many. The alarm now going off again indicating that he was running behind was not what had his heart racing. He knew he did not have a math test today. He also knew that, even if he did, he would pass it easily. Math was his best subject, but what if he had forgotten about something and his subconscious was reminding him.

In his panicked hurry to double check his calendar, Ben got tangled in his sheets and tumbled off his bed to the floor.

“Ben!” his mother’s anxious voice called from downstairs.

“Yes, mom?”

“Is everything all right?” she asked in genuine concern.

“I’m okay.” He grimaced knowing she would want an explanation. “My blankets fell on the floor.”

He could hear her exasperated sigh. “If you are about to tell that the reason those blankets sounded so heavy is because you were in them, so help me, I will come up there…” The rest of her words were drowned out by the sounds of their family dogs barking.

Ben fondly rolled his eyes - his mother knew him too well – before jumping up and going back to his original task. He hurriedly pulled his calendar out of his bookbag and started scanning it. There was nothing. Today was not special. For once, his calendar was blank. Which meant…

Ben’s eyes grew large and his breathing picked up as realization hit him. He was beginning to think that he did not have a soulmate. When he turned thirteen, he hoped to start hearing from her quickly, but nothing had ever happened. Most people began hearing their soulmate’s thoughts within at most a year or two of turning thirteen. It would only happen once both had turned that age. Then all they had to do was find one another and kiss at some point. That first kiss would leave matching marks somewhere on their bodies. Unfortunately, most people who had not heard their soulmates thoughts by the time they were eighteen never did hear them.

Ben was so sure that he would be one of those with no soulmate. He was no one’s favorite person. Most people considered him to be too quiet, too intense, too odd. He wasn’t even what others would consider good looking. There was a host of other reasons, but, just generally speaking, he was disliked. Now the thought that there was someone out there who could possibly love him left him breathless. The obvious issue of her age had not occurred to him when he tried reaching out to her like his mother had told him to if he ever connected to her mind.

_Good morning to you too._ He grinned as he felt a wave of shock that he knew for sure did not come from him.

_You really exist?_ Came her hesitant reply. She almost sounded scared but hopeful at the same time.

_Yes. I was beginning to think you didn’t though. Guess today is your birthday. Happy Birthday._ That was when it hit him. At eighteen, he was technically an adult; and she was still a child. He resolutely decided to be careful. If it meant that they needed to wait for a while before they met, that was something he was willing to do. At least they knew each other was there. It also meant that he would go without a mark to prove her existence for a little while longer.

He felt sadness flow through her mind even as she became giddy with excitement. _Thank you. You are the first to say that to me._

_I can be the first next year too._ Her excitement flooded him, and he wondered at what might cause such excitement when he was only wishing her a happy birthday. _You have a math test today?_ He asked her as he started collecting his things to get ready for school.

_Yes._ Came her disgruntled response. _I am awful at it. English is my best subject._

Grinning at how perfect that was, he quickly responded. _English is my worst subject, and math is my best. I can help you study before the test._

Her relief was almost palpable. _Please! I need to pass this test or…_

Her thought just trailed off, but Ben could sense the importance of this to her. _I can help. Not during the test,_ he stated pointedly, _but I can help you understand the material before._ _We can talk about it on the way to school._

Joy that came not just from her filled up every space in his chest. He was talking to his soulmate! Yes, she was young, but the fact of the matter was she existed. It wouldn’t take long for others to start picking up on the fact that he had finally heard her. The sudden leap in his English grade would be a dead give-away. For now, he would keep it to himself… and his mom. He couldn’t keep anything from her. The woman was bordering on omniscient.

_

_Best. Day. Ever._ Rey shouted to her soulmate as she walked away from her school and headed in the direction of the park. Her soulmate! Just finding out that they were a real thing this morning and not just something in a textbook had been nothing short of joyous, but then to realize that she had one sent her over the moon.

She honestly didn’t know what to expect last night when she went to bed. She was nervous. It’s not like she had many friends. Unkar kept her far too busy at home with the other foster kids that were younger than her for her to have something as great as a friend. Some days she hated being the oldest. At least now she wouldn’t be as lonely. Her soulmate would be there to talk to her.

_What made it so great and how did the test go?_ His voice was so deep. Objectively, Rey knew that he was older, but she absolutely refused to consider how much older. She did not want entertain the thought that it could be a little while before she could be with him. It wasn’t that Unkar was physically abusive, but he was very neglectful. She was left far too often to care for the others because Plutt could not bothered to get up and deal with anything himself. For this reason, she vowed to herself that she would leave as soon as she could. Now she possibly had an option of where she could go – straight to her soulmate.

_I passed my test with a B thanks to you!_ She didn’t bother telling him that he was the other reason for such a great day. He gave her hope that her life wouldn’t always be the pile of trash that it was now. He gave her hope that she could maybe keep her grades up throughout her time in school and get a good scholarship when she went to college. He gave her hope that maybe, just maybe, someone out there would care about her.

_Happy to help! Are you doing anything special for your birthday?_

It was an innocent question, but it nearly tore Rey to pieces. He clearly didn’t understand when she had told him this morning that he was the first person to wish her a happy birthday that he was actually the first… that she could remember. Ever. Now what was she supposed tell him?

_I don’t have any plans. Too much to do. Maybe I can celebrate some other time._ She knew he would pick up on the dejectedness in her thoughts. It was hard to miss. Hopefully, she could cover it up some. _BUT! I got to talk to you!_

The mix of emotions that flowed from him was nearly overpowering. He seemed so surprised by her news but happy that she was glad that she got to talk to him. It made her wonder who he was that he became so inexplicably happy about that.

Once she arrived at the park, Rey sat heavily at a picnic table that she usually occupied for a few peaceful moments on her way back to Plutt’s house. She loved sitting there watching ducks in the pond. It was so easy to pull out her notebook and begin writing about the family she wished she had while also watching all the other families around her. And she was never alone in her observations.

When she had first started coming to the park on her way home from school two years ago, she had noticed a dark-haired, teenaged boy with a sketchbook lounging on the large rocks by the pond. He was always so absorbed in his surroundings while he drew that Rey was able to observe him. From what all she could tell, he was just as lonely as she was. His eyes were always drawn to the families that came to the park but most especially the boys with their fathers. That seemed to really bring out a longing look.

_So what are you up to right now then?_ Her soulmate’s voice broke through her thoughts as she watched the black-haired boy climb up on the rocks and settle in with a huff.

_Writing. I only get to do that for a little while each day._ _I want to be a writer. Maybe I can work for the Chandrilla Times! Be a Lois Lane!_ She knew what she said wasn’t funny, but the feeling of amusement that came from him made her feel warm and happy all over.

_Glad to know you are a nerd!_

Rey couldn’t help but smile as she settled in to write deciding that today she would write about the boy on the rock. He had been a source of inspiration before. In fact, he was her favorite inspiration. His emotions were all over the place. Some days he would show up absolutely a blank slate of emotion. Other days he would show up looking like he was ready to murder someone. She was determined to catch him one day in the act of smiling. For a moment, she thought that today would be that day. He certainly did look happier than normal. Regardless of when he did smile, she was fully convinced that it would be a glorious thing to witness.

His looks, though some might not care for them, were charming in their own way. His nose, lips, and ears were rather large, but they fit his face perfectly. His wavy black hair and dark eyes were absolutely gorgeous. Everything about him was extreme. Size included. He was huge. Rey was sure that he was around 6’ 2”.

It was safe to say that she had developed a little crush on this anonymous boy, but she was determined to get over him because of the fact that her soulmate had dropped into her life just that morning. She knew that he would be there for her. Some part of her knew that the boy who belonged to the voice in her head would one day love her, and she couldn’t wait! If only the soulmate bond would allow them to tell each other their names!


	2. 20 years old (Ben) / 15 years old (Rey)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is an extra chapter for this week since I goofed up on tagging this story when I posted it. Just to be clear since I accidently hit the wrong button, the relationship in this story is 100% Rey and Ben (with some minor Rose/Finn and Poe/Zorii). Nothing else going on there.

_Hey, Kylo, why do I need to know all this algebra mess? I plan to write for a newspaper, or be an editor, and maybe write some children’s books not build a stinking skyscraper! I will leave that to smarties like you._

It had been two years of nearly constant company, two years of having a confidant, two years of having a best friend. A few days after they had discovered each other through the soulmate bond, they found a way around the name gag – they gave each other a name. One that only they knew. Ben couldn’t imagine being happier.

His life had gotten so much better with her voice there to wake him up in the mornings and to say good night to him in the evenings. There were some days, that was all the talking they did, but it was enough to know the other was there. He had told her rather early in their friendship that because of his age, it was best since she was still a minor that they keep their entire relationship/friendship/whatever-this-was in their minds for the time being. She had been very understanding albeit brokenhearted. He understood that feeling intimately.

Over those two years, he had come to care deeply about her. She was the most precious person alive to him. If he could, he would protect her life with his own. As it stood though, he didn’t even know where she was or what she looked like. There were days that he felt like he knew more about that girl from the picnic table in the park.

Every day for the last four years, the girl had made that picnic table her spot. He had noticed her almost immediately the first time she showed up. It struck him as odd that someone so young (she had to be around ten years old) was allowed to be out by herself in an area that probably wasn’t the best for that. Not that Chandrilla was dangerous, but, as in other cities, there were some areas that were less safe than others. He had quickly resolved to come to the park after class every day and to stay until she left. It was strange, but she brought out this fiercely protective side of him.

Much to his chagrin, somewhere along the way, he had also come to think of the girl at the picnic table as quite pretty. Her hazel eyes and chestnut brown hair fit her tan, freckled skin well. As far as he was concerned, she was future prom queen material. He occasionally had to remind himself that he had a soulmate and that this girl was young… same as his soulmate. Still, he found the attraction a little odd and definitely disconcerting. 

_You probably won’t use algebra, Kira; but, for whatever reason, you are still required to take it. I am more than happy to help you though._ Granted, he was beginning to wish that he could help her in person and not through this mental bond. Kira’s persistent request to meet in person was apparently rubbing off.

_Has anyone ever told you that you are literally the best?_ Came her enthusiastic reply.

_No. Most people think I am drag. Sorry. Not the person getting invited to all the parties. Looks like you are stuck with a boring old guy._

_Would you stop that?! You are not boring! You always make me smile, and let’s not forget about the morning we met! How long did you say it took you to fix the sheets on your bed after you fell out of it? So you aren’t some big party animal, but you are my favorite person._ Kira had become his advocate quite often and it only endeared her to him more.

_What would I do without you, sweetheart?_

_Kylo… you ask that all the time. Pretty sure you could survive just fine without me. I’m a nobody._ Her voice was so quiet and pained even in his head. He couldn’t stand it when she ran herself down like that. She truly believed she was worthless.

_You are not a nobody. Not to me. You are my best friend, and I am pretty sure it would be awful if you weren’t there._ Every word he spoke was spoken resolutely. She couldn’t argue with that feeling.

Ben could feel the happy vibes coming off her in tsunami-like waves. It always made him happy when he could make her happy. If knowing that she meant that much to him made her happy, he would make sure to let her know as often as possible.

_

The boy, now young man, that had been at the park in the afternoons for the last four years was back again today. It had become far less frequent Rey assumed due to the fact that he probably had a job and was at college. She had begun to miss his silent brooding company as he drew while sitting on the rocks.

Over the last couple years, he had really started growing into his looks. His long, gangly frame was becoming more muscular. The soft lines of childhood on his face had been replaced by the hard lines of a man. His overly large features fit him even more perfectly than they once did. As always though, his dark eyes and black hair remained his best feature.

_Kylo_ , she hesitantly asked as curiosity finally got the best of her. _What color are your eyes?_

Not once in the last three years had they asked anything about what the other looked like. It had become an unspoken desire to wait until they met in person to find out what the other looked like. This one time though, her curiosity was more than she could bear.

_Hazel, technically. Though they can be easily mistaken for brown,_ came his equally hesitant reply.

Rey could hardly contain her excitement. He had dark eyes! That explains her weakness for brown/hazel eyes! Her soulmate’s eyes were the very color that she was attracted to. This just kept getting better and better.

_Mine are a hazel color too! But they tend to look green,_ she told him in return. After all, it was only fair that she should give some info about her own looks in return.

A sudden cough drew her eyes back to the dark-haired man on the rocks. She had to stifle her excitement as she saw what she thought might be an actual smile cross his face. It was quickly hidden behind his hand as he picked up a different colored pencil to continue whatever he was sketching. She thought the new pencil looked green.  
  


Feeling a need to change topics, Rey asked him about college. She knew that he was going to Chandrilla University and that he was studying business management of some sort. He had told her that he wanted to work with his mother one day at the company that she and her brother had started, but he had also told her that lately he and his mother had not seen eye to eye on much. Apparently, his academic advisor had some strong beliefs that he had been discussing with Kylo recently and it was affecting how he viewed some things at his mother’s business (whatever that was). Because of what he had told her of those interactions, Rey occasionally worried about this but hadn’t said anything because of her age.

_I kinda wish you were still gonna be in college when I get there. I think that could make the transition a little easier,_ she told him later that day while she was working on homework in her bedroom. She was ready to be away from Plutt and on her own.

_I might be. I would like to get my masters_ , he responded. _It would be nice to be here together for a little while._

_I hope I can get in,_ she declared. Ben wasn’t up to speed on all of her history, but he did know that she was in the foster system. He knew that she was concerned that she wouldn’t get in since she definitely would have to get a scholarship. On the days she was discouraged about the odds of getting in, he would always try to encourage her.

_You will get in. You are brilliant. It isn’t every day that someone is able to listen to and edit an entire paper for their soulmate just by using this bond. Especially when said editor is in high school and is correcting a college paper. Plus, you are hard-working, make great grades, and have a clean record. They will beg you to come here_ , he added as a final push to boost her confidence.

His praise always went straight to her head but in the best way possible. If it weren’t for him, she might have zero self-esteem. The girls at school had certainly seen to making her life a living nightmare. Knowing that he thought she was incredible (because he told her rather frequently) always helped her. She looked forward to the day she could be with him – the day she would have her proof that he existed.

_Kylo, did you deal with anyone in high school who tried to make your life miserable because you didn’t have any proof of us?_ She asked suddenly.

_Sure. All the time. You have no idea how many times I considered burning the building so I wouldn’t have to go to class,_ he joked. _Ok, so that joke was a little crass, but you get the idea. Just ignore them. It became so much easier to do once you and I talked the first time._

_When are we going to meet in person?_ She demanded impatiently for what had to be the tenth time that week.

Kylo gave a longsuffering sigh. _Not until you are eighteen_ , was his reply as usual. Today though, it appeared that he could tell that answer would not be enough anymore. _How about we pick a date after your eighteenth birthday?_

_Why not my eighteenth birthday?_ She suggested.

_I am looking at the calendar, and January 28 is a Thursday. Not sure how well that would work since we have no idea about schedules right now. This is going to sound very cliché but how about Valentine’s Day?_ He supplied.

_I love it! Yes! Let’s plan for then!_ She was practically dancing in her enthusiasm to finally have a day set when she would meet him.

Was it a little cliché to meet her soulmate on Valentine’s Day? Yes. Did Rey care? Nope! In fact, it was the best thing she had ever heard. From that day on, she stopped asking when they would meet and started ending the day with telling him how many days left until February 14, 2010.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was mostly just fluff, but it does have a couple small plot points that needed their own little area to launch from. I apologize for any errors. I will go back and fix those later when it is not the middle of the night! The next chapter probably won't be up until sometime next week.


	3. 22 years old (Ben) / 17 years old (Rey)

_I just don’t trust him Kylo_ , Rey insisted. Her soulmate could certainly be hard-headed when he wanted to be. For the last year or so, he had been relentlessly defending his college academic advisor. Rey could see quite clearly that whoever this man was, he was being somewhat mentally abusive to Kylo. Rey knew nothing about running a business but abuse? That was something she was intimately acquainted with.

_Kira,_ he impatiently replied, _my advisor is wise. He knows what he is doing. He has been in the business world for a very long time. He runs a wildly successful banking firm!_

The argument about his advisor had honestly gotten old. Kylo definitely wanted to see the best in the man, but some of what he said left Rey very concerned. Again, Rey was prepared to admit that she knew next to nothing about running a business, but she was fairly sure that this advisor was crooked. Even if he wasn’t, Rey was certain that he was manipulative.

_Kylo. He is micromanaging you, and you are just his student. Has he even said something not critical about your work because I can’t remember you saying he ever has!_

Rey could practically feel him sigh in frustration. _He just wants me to be the best I can be. It’s called constructive criticism._

_Constructive criticism without ever a word of praise is just plain criticism. That’s what you told me when I had that one horrid teacher in middle school,_ she argued. _I really don’t want to fight about this anymore. Do me one favor and I will drop this. Please talk to your mom about what he has said. You told me she is always honest in her business dealings which means that she would probably give you an honest answer._

The frustration that had been slowly building in him dissipated in a moment. Whether that was from relief that the argument was over or from the realization the he had disappointed her, Rey wasn’t sure. She had learned to recognize the self-flagellating emotions that came with the later of the two things and he was brimming with them.

_I will try. She can be a hard person to talk to. Plus, she is usually very busy. Sometimes too busy to even talk to me._

Pain was the normal emotion that came from him when his family was brought up. That was something she could empathize with. He had told her that his father had walked away from him and his mother before he turned ten. After that, his mom was distant and busy only stopping to correct the issue when he was in his late teens. Essentially, he was abandoned by his parents – like she had been.

_That’s all I ask,_ she commented softly.

_Hey, we are getting close to Valentine’s Day,_ he tried to placate her. _We should start planning what we are going to do._

Rey smiled at his attempt to make her happy after their old argument. _We should. Have you had any thoughts? I was thinking maybe we could go to the lantern festival. It is usually at the gardens in downtown and is supposed to be set up again in February. I have always wanted to see it,_ she supplied hopefully.

_That sounds like it would be interesting. How about we go for dinner first and then walk there. You mentioned that you have never had cheesecake, so how about the Cheesecake Factory? They have really good food and amazing dessert. As an added bonus, it looks like it is a short walk away from where the festival is._

_I like the way you think!_ She beamed. _Can we get that Godiva chocolate cheesecake?_

_We can get two slices. One original and one chocolate. You can keep the leftovers of whichever is your favorite._

_Leftovers? You think there will be leftovers of something you say is so delicious?!_ She asked incredulously.

_Yes. The slices of cheesecake are rich and big. If you try eating all of that plus your meal, you will be sick_ , he chuckled.

_I like this plan so far!_ She exclaimed. _Oh! By the way, I got my acceptance letter to Chandrilla University today!_

_

Ben all but jumped out his skin in excitement. _Congratulations! I am so happy for you! Told you that they would accept you! They must really have liked what they saw to accept you so fast! Looks like you will be joining me here soon!_

_Slow down! I still have a couple months of my junior year left and all of my senior year. Plus, if my grades slip any at all, I won’t get a scholarship,_ she gently reminded him.

_You will make it. I have complete faith in you!_ Ben comforted her.

Truth be told, he had complete faith in a lot of things that Kira said, and as such he was sure that she was right to some degree about Snoke. His advisor was a little too harsh, but Ben had chalked that up to Snoke trying to help him be the best he could be. Ben really didn’t know why he kept arguing with Kira over this. It probably had something to do with his pride. He didn’t really want to admit that someone so inexperienced had caught something like this when he didn’t. One way or the other, he was proud of her.

_Whatever happens, I will be glad to get away from here. My foster father is driving me to insanity,_ she vehemently spoke. Ben could practically feel the venom in those words.

_He hasn’t touched you, right?_ He growled.

_No. He keeps his hands to himself. He is just a disgusting, lazy old man who could care less for any of us,_ she replied sadly.

_You will be out of there soon, and if he does touch you, you will meet me in person a lot sooner because I want you to tell me should something happen. Okay?_ He gently pleaded.

_You better believe I will tell you if something happens,_ was her equally as gentle response. They both understood that this was a test of their trust in each other as well as a show of the depth of their feelings. The way they spoke of their home situations was as close as they could get to giving each other a comforting hug.

_I will talk to my mom about my advisor. Promise. And I will see you in 312 days,_ he smugly reminded her when he beat her to the punch.

_That is my line!_ She said trying to sound upset with him even though she couldn’t possibly be happier with the reminder.

Ben chuckled deep in his chest at her attempt at sounding irritated at him over something he knows makes her excited. Caught up in his conversation with Kira, he barely noticed his roommate and adoptive brother Poe walk in the front door of their apartment.

“What’s with the goofy grin, bro?” Poe snickered knowing full well what was going on.

Looking up from the homework he had been half heartedly working on at the kitchen table, Ben gave his brother a look that said “shut-up” before he went back to work.

“I don’t even know why you are pretending to work when I can see that your soulmate has you so thoroughly distracted. It is rather adorable how smitten you are, big brother,” Poe continued. It was his stated life’s mission to embarrass Ben at every opportunity over his soulmate.

“She said to tell you that you need to leave me alone so I can work,” Ben sassed right back.

“Oh? Being her messenger boy now are you? You must truly be gone on this girl!”

“You know, one day you will willingly meet your soulmate instead of being the town flirt, and I hope I am present for it so I can see fall head over heels. And when she asks you to do something, I can’t wait to see you melt and go along with it,” Ben smugly responded.

Poe snorted with laughter as he continued to pester Ben and set out his own homework. “I most certainly will not. No woman will ever conquer this heart!”

“Famous last words, kid.”

Poe growled at the use of that nickname. “I am not a kid anymore, Ben.”

“Oh really? I thought only little boys believed girls have cooties?” Ben laughed.

“I… I don’t think… that is absolutely… Where did you an idea like that?” Poe spluttered.

“I just figured a fear of cooties or something was the reason you were not willing to meet her. I mean, it would truly have to be a ridiculous reason to not meet the person who is a perfect fit for you. Why not meet your soulmate? Unless you actually are scared of her.”

They went on like that the rest of the night. Despite appearances, Ben deeply enjoyed these moments with his brother. Poe had been a blessing that had popped up unexpectedly in Ben’s life after his freshman year of college. His parents, who were dear family friends, had died in a plane crash and had left Poe to the custody of Leia. A year later, he joined Ben at Chandrilla University and they became roommates. Their favorite pastime quickly became picking at each other, but they were the only ones who were allowed to do that. Anyone else, it would end in disaster.

Despite all the good-natured ribbing that Poe gave Ben over his soulmate though, he was genuinely happy for his brother and maybe slightly jealous of him (not that he would admit that to Ben’s face). Whoever this Kira was, she was the best thing that Poe could imagine has ever happened to Ben.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I researched lantern festivals for a history class I taught last year and absolutely fell in love with them. Therefore, Chandrilla now has a lantern festival. Also, that Godiva chocolate cheesecake is incredible!
> 
> Next chapter should be up later this week. This story has sucked me in so you may end with a couple updates this week. We shall see what happens!


	4. Valentine's Day

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So the angst in this story could be treated as something that tastes really bad. It is shocking and rather sudden, but once it is gone you are just left with the aftertaste for a little bit. On that rather eerie note... enjoy?
> 
> TW: Ben is gonna lose his cool. There is some blood. Not much but I figured I should cover all the bases here. It is rather emotional.

Today was the day! Ben was supposed to meet Kira in person for the first time and he was over the moon about it. When he woke up that morning, he was practically vibrating with excitement. They had been planning this day for a little over a year. He was going to meet her at the Chandrilla Mall, and, from there, he was going to take her to the Cheesecake Factory and then to the lantern festival.

Late last night after he got out of his evening classes, he had hurried to the local florist and bought a big bunch of daisies and an adorable stuffed dog. He had paid close attention when she had said that daisies were her favorites and that she had never had her own stuffed animal. He was not sure what that was all about but be it far from him not to give her a big fluffy Siberian husky plush to go with her flowers.

He had spent the night staring at both items on his dresser. They had barely allowed him to sleep. His mind was in whirl thinking about what was to come. He and Kira had talked about the possibility already of their first kiss, but had decided to see where the in-person meeting led them. Ben was still fairly certain that he would come away from the night with a mark to match hers.

Jumping out of bed with more energy than what should have been possible after only a couple hours of sleep, Ben immediately reached out for Kira.

_Good morning, sweetheart! Nine more hours. I can’t wait to see you tonight!_

Ben stood dancing around from foot to foot in excitement waiting for her response. Some of his excitement dimmed when no response came. It felt a little like it did when she was still sleeping. He tried not to think about the fact that she was sleeping later than normal or the fact that she would normally wake up when he greeted her.

Shrugging it off as her just being asleep, Ben gathered his favorite white henley and dark wash jeans as he hurried to the shower. He took longer than normal to get ready. Honestly, he felt ridiculous with how long he was taking to shave and style his hair, but he wanted to make a good impression. Thankfully, he was living in his own apartment with only his brother Poe to hassle him over this. If he was at home with his mother, not only would he never hear the end of it, but there would picture proof!

After gathering Kira’s gifts and his wallet and jacket, Ben leisurely strolled into the kitchen where he set everything on the counter and began pulling together breakfast.

The rest of the morning slid by quietly. Too quietly. Ben started worrying when by lunch time, he had heard nothing from Kira. Her mind still felt sluggish with sleep. He kept pushing it aside telling himself that she must have had a hard time sleeping like he had and was simply exhausted. But it was getting harder to disregard when by two in the afternoon, she still had not stirred.

Ben’s head whirled with questions about what could be going on. Was she sick? Did she have second thoughts about him and was rejecting him? Was she just simply asleep? Nervously, he reached out.

_Kira, you okay?_

Silence.

_Kira?_

For the next half hour, he reached out to her with no success every couple minutes. Suddenly, he felt her mind waking up. His initial excitement was eclipsed by her confusion that was quickly followed by panic and terror.

_Kira! What’s wrong?_ He shouted into her mind only to be met by more panic. Something was indeed very wrong.

_Kira, talk to me!_

Ben leaned hard against the counter in his kitchen with his eyes glued to the flowers and stuffed dog while he tried to calm her. He had no idea what was going on but he was officially scared. He could literally feel her panic. Each of his breaths were coming in short and ragged gasps. Reaching out, he gripped the edge of the counter until his knuckles turned white never noticing that Poe had walked into the room and was watching with wide concerned eyes.

“Ben, what’s going on?” Poe asked warily.

But Ben couldn’t respond. He was pulled too tightly into whatever was happening to his soulmate. Finally, she spoke. Or rather, screamed. He clapped his hands over his ears and fell to the floor.

_KYLO!!!_

There was a sudden sharp pain and then all was silent. The panic and terror were gone. The deafening screams were gone. Worse, Kira was gone and all that was left was a yawning chasm where she should have been. Tears streamed down his face unimpeded, and his entire being reached out for her only to be met with an unimaginable pain when he found nothing.

_Kira?_

Silence.

_Kira?!_ He begged desperately.

More silence.

“Ben? Talk to me, brother. What is going on?” Poe pleaded from somewhere above Ben’s prostrate form.

But Ben remained mute even after he sat up against the stove. He just stared off into space as tears continued to roll down his face. Poe tried for nearly an hour to get him to speak, but Ben remained unresponsive.

“I have tried everything to get him to talk, Mama,” Poe sighed. After over two hours of nothing from Ben, he had caved and called Leia. “I don’t know what happened. He is just sitting there… wait a minute. He’s getting up.”

Ben stiffly stood from his place on the floor and staggered back over to the counter where he once again gripped it and stared accusingly at the vase of daisies. Before Poe even had a chance to react, Ben reached out, grabbed the vase, and threw it against the wall with shocking force. Water splashed up on the wall and across the floor, and pieces of broken glass scattered around the room. Stumbling blindly over to the wet wall, Ben started repeatedly slamming his fists into the wall as he let loose agonized scream after agonized scream.

Poe watched in horror as his brother broke. Without even hanging up or answering the terrified questions of the mother on the other end of the line, he dropped the phone and did his best to restrain the hulking, heartbroken man whose knuckles were now bleeding from the rough attention they had given the wall and whose bare feet were adding trails of blood to the floor from the broken glass that had cut into them.

Several terrifying minutes later, Poe had managed to wrangle Ben to the floor where he lay in a sobbing heap. Most of his words were unintelligible, but Poe could definitely make out between desperate gasps for air the words “gone,” “Kira,” and “dead.” That was all he needed to know that his brother had just experienced a loss more painful than he could possibly fathom. After calling 911, Poe slid to the floor next to his brother and pulled his limp body into a tight hug not letting go until the paramedic arrived and sedated Ben.

Over the following months, Ben barely opened up. When he finally did, it was to Poe and Poe alone. He did his best to help his brother pull through, but the poor man was shattered. Changed. And Poe was growing concerned about the person Ben was changing into.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise that it doesn't last long! This all a part of the big plan. I know. I'm sorry. I shall go sit in the corner until the next chapter update which should be over the weekend.
> 
> And just for clarity in later chapters - Ben is 23 and Rey is 18.


	5. Decisions (Ben - 25 years old)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Here is that bitter aftertaste I was talking about last chapter. Before the time jump causes any pain, I want to explain why I allowed the time jumps that are about to happen. I do not want Ben investing his emotional well being in one person and relying on romance to fix his issues. That is unhealthy. He is going to be a strong man and and do the right thing. The pain will still be there (grief is the worst), but Rey is not going to be the magical cure all. This will take him some time. So for this chapter, Ben has some things to come to terms with. Rey will be joining us again VERY soon.

Two years. Two years of unbelievable mental anguish. Life took on a mundane routine. The piercing alarm would go off, and he would immediately climb out of bed. He would shower, dress in his usual suit and tie, choke down a smoothie, and go to work where he would spend hours upon hours staring at the financial records of First Order Financial. He would return home, eat dinner alone, maybe read a book, and go to bed. The next day, he would do the same thing. There was never a change nor the desire to introduce any change. All his sense of adventure died with Kira.

His college advisor had given him a job as soon as he had graduated with his master’s in business administration with the understanding that he could one day be the CFO and possibly even the CEO. Snoke said that he saw potential in Ben. He didn’t treat Ben like he was broken; even though he really was. And at first, Ben was grateful. Excited even to work for Snoke, but then he started noticing the odd cash flow and unusual customers.

At first, Ben tried to brush it off. FO was a large and prolific banking firm that helped many companies. As time rolled on though, he was able to push through the pain in his mind to really start questioning some of those numbers. Who was Bala-Tik? And Unkar Plutt? Why were they and the one company seemingly missing half the required information that should have been in their charts? Why were there so many pay outs to the casino in Canto Bight?

When he brought up his concerns to Snoke, they had been almost completely blown off. He just took the proffered files and told Ben that they would be passed off to Pryde, the current CFO. It took Ben by surprise just how lightly Snoke took the issue. Maybe it really was no big deal, and Ben was just being over-zealous.

After working at FO though for a full year, Ben knew that there was something not right. Numbers were far too often not matching up. The checkbooks rarely balanced. And whenever Ben brought up his concerns to Snoke, the man just said it was because Pryde still had to take care of some things on his end. Certain files even stopped crossing his desk like they should have.

Finally, full of resolve to do something about his mess of a life after over two years without Kira, Ben called his mother for the first time since he told her off while he was in the hospital after that awful day. Calling his mom is what Kira told him to do, but he never did. That alone filled him up with regret. He never kept his promise when she was... well he still didn’t like thinking about what she was now.

“Ben? Is that really you?” Leia tentatively asked when she answered the phone.

“Yeah, Mom. It’s me,” Ben responded as he settled into the seat at his dining room table with his computer up in case his mother needed something right then and there. “Sorry I have been so difficult the last couple years. It’s safe to say that I lost my way,” he responded sadly.

He heard her sniff and knew that he was the reason that his mother was crying. After all those years of swearing that he would never hurt his mother the way that his father had hurt them both, he realized that he had done exactly that. The first half of the phone call was nothing but apologies and tears and catching up. He finally brought the conversation around to the main reason he called.

“Mom, I need your help. Kira told me I should talk to you about this, but I didn’t when I should have,” he admitted.

“What do you need?” she curiously asked.

“I think FO is corrupt. I have been getting odd paperwork, and numbers aren’t adding up. Most worrisome is the fact that Snoke is unconcerned. These aren’t small numbers either.”

His mother was silent as she contemplated. Her silence unnerved him. It always unnerved him. He never knew if it was going to be a good thing or a bad thing. Hopefully she wouldn’t yell at him for not listening and for working for a crooked (possible) criminal, but he knew he would deserve just that if she did give it to him. When she did respond, however, he thought he might burst into tears again since she said the words he had craved to hear since he was a small child.

“I am so proud of you, son,” she choked out around tears. “I know admitting this was not easy. I have been in your shoes many times myself, and it never gets any easier. Tell you what we shall do. Meet me for lunch tomorrow and bring some paperwork with you that you would be would be willing to show me that you think exhibits what you are talking about.”

“Thank you, Mom. This has me so stressed out and worried. I could get into a lot of trouble. This is not something I ever wanted to be part of. Kira was always telling me that I should trust you and not Snoke, and I am ashamed that I didn’t listen to her sooner,” he sadly murmured.

“Well, you are correcting it now. Lunch tomorrow at the burger joint on the corner of Fifth and Lucas Avenue?” After he mumbled his assent, she continued. “And, Ben, I am proud of you. I know she would be too.”

Lunch with his mother went exactly like he thought it would and nothing like he thought it would all at the same time. She took one look at the accounts he showed her, and, for the first time in his memory, she agreed with him declaring that she had never seen such shady business. Aside from the slight bit of corporate espionage that they were dipping their toes in, lunch itself was a very pleasant occasion. They talked, laughed, cried. He even bent down and gave his small mother a hug and a promise to call when they went their separate ways. Now it was up to him to decided what to do with the information he was now in possession of.

Ben decided that for the first time since that awful Valentine’s Day, he would take some time off work to sort out his thoughts and make decisions. The only way to truly get the days off without suspicion or backlash was to be sick enough to go to the doctor. Thankfully, his Uncle Luke was a doctor and was able to, after a long conversation with Leia, write him a doctor’s note that gave him three days off work. Luke wrote it down as the flu, but, after chatting with Ben, he mentally labeled it mental health days. Needless to say, Snoke was not pleased.

On the first day, Ben just laid around his apartment wishing he still lived with Poe. His brother had moved out in the weeks following Ben starting his job with FO. Ben would freely admit that in the time between Kira’s supposed death and just a few months ago, he had turned into a cold-hearted monster. He had lashed out at Poe frequently enough that his longsuffering brother had just packed up and told him to call when he could carry on a conversation without angrily throwing something against the wall. That wasn’t the extent of the verbal reprimands that he received from Poe, but Ben always reacted the same – unforgiving harshness.

Looking back, he knew Poe was right. He had allowed Kira’s absence to suck the life right out of him. He had quit and taken out his anger and depression on those most able to help him. Now he wished for them all back.

On the second day, he decided that he would not be able to move forward if he did not face his pain. He opted to attempt to do what Poe had suggested after Ben had told him the truth about what had happened on Valentine’s Day. Since it was the middle of July, the lantern festival was not an option. He, therefore, improvised. Getting up early, Ben went to the store and picked up the necessary supplies to make his own lantern. On his way back to the apartment, he picked up a bouquet of daisies and a slice of cheesecake. Today, he was going to do what he should have done on that day, but today he would allow himself to hurt.

At first, he felt the usual nothing as he began to make his lantern, but as the day went on, he slowly started to release the pent-up grief. By three o’clock in the afternoon, he had finished the lantern and was actively sobbing while he tried to eat his cheesecake. It was oddly cathartic while being simultaneously extremely painful and exhausting.

When the sun set, he decided that he had dealt with all the emotions he could handle for one day. The lantern was placed in the storage room, the remains of the slice of cheesecake went in the trash, and the daisies were all thrown out but one. The last one he took to his mother two days later to have her press it and make it into a bookmark. He would keep some visual reminder that Kira had existed. He slept that night with the stuffed dog that he had purchased for Kira squashed to his chest.

On the third day, Ben woke up with a renewed sense of purpose and clear mind for the first time in a long time. He knew that FO and Snoke were both corrupted. Now he just had to make the decision about what to do with this information. Surely if he took down FO, no one else would hire him because he had worked for a corrupt bank. But if he stayed, he would disappoint his family and insult his precious soulmate. Not to mention he would destroy what was left of himself. 

Ben ran his hand over his face while he growled out his frustration. He pleaded once again for Kira to speak to him. To wish him a good morning. He needed her voice there this morning to help lend him strength. As always, there was nothing. Swinging his legs over the side of the bed, he huffed out a frustrated sigh and just decided to do what he knew he should do. 

It took Ben a while to locate the right phone number, but, when he finally did, he felt an old weight lift from his shoulders and a new one settle in its place. Plans and back-up plans were made. Information was given. Ben was warned about the dangers involved in what he was about to do, but he was determined that he would do what needed to be done.

Just before leaving their appointed meeting place two weeks later, the person he would be working with for the foreseeable future reminded him: “Just make sure that you stay above suspicion. The longer you do, the more we can accomplish.” With that said, she stepped into her car and drove away leaving Ben standing outside the park.

With a sudden jolt, he realized that he hadn’t seen the girl at the park in a couple years now. He turned and stared sadly at the picnic table she used to occupy every afternoon wondering what had happened to her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I actually did what Ben did here after my dad died. I sat down and watched one of his favorite movies and just let myself cry. It helps to allow yourself to grieve which Ben was not doing. He was just getting angry and taking it out on others.
> 
> So this early update is brought to you by I am sitting at home bored out of my mind while dealing with a virus. Yay me! If things continue this way tomorrow, you may very well get your next update by tomorrow or Saturday night (That one will include a moment you have all been waiting for!). Thanks for reading!


	6. The Personal Assistant Issue (Ben - 29 years old / Rey - 24 years old)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... here we go! Enjoy!

“Another PA fired?” Snoke bellowed at Ben. “You go through personal assistants like most people do underwear!”

It seemed that the moment Ben fired Kandia this morning, Snoke had sent for him. He was furious with Ben, but Ben didn’t care in the least little bit. She had crossed boundaries. It didn't matter to Ben that Kira had been gone for six years, the last thing he wanted was his assistant or anyone else making a pass at him. Even if that was the only issue, he still would have fired her; but, after messing up several accounts and causing him to be late to two important meetings, she was done.

“Sir, she was a half-wit. Couldn’t get her job done right no matter how many chances I gave,” Ben growled back.

After working at First Order Financial for the last five years, Ben could definitely say that he was over it. The promotion last year to CFO had come with a few perks like a nice pay increase, but it also came with higher stress levels (as if they weren’t high enough to begin with). He also now had access to information that had previously been locked away from him making his other job easier.

The one thing that really was stressing him out the most was the way he had to behave. _Stay above suspicion,_ he had been told. Well, he hated it. Staying above suspicion in place like FO meant that he had to jeopardize his own conscience on an almost daily basis. At least his soulmate wasn’t around to witness this humiliation.

Unfortunately, the people who felt his – often faked - wrath more often than not were his poor little personal assistants. He had managed to go through at least six since he took over as CFO. He really did feel bad for “firing” so many of them, but he had to. One of them started getting a little too nosey and almost blew his cover, three were there to help him with his other job, and the other two were flirty bimbos. The later of the three types he was most assuredly not interested in having around. He would have preferred Hux’s PA. Mitaka’s constant nervous behavior would be a vast improvement over women hitting on him.

“I will try to find a new PA. One that I can work with and that will hopefully be around a while,” Ben assured Snoke. _Though hopefully, I won’t be around here much longer_ , he added to himself.

“You had better make sure of it, boy,” the older man bellowed. “See yourself out. I have better things to deal with than your idiocy.”

Ben stepped out of Snoke’s office and let out a sigh of relief when the door clicked shut behind him. That old man had no idea what was coming his way one day. He dug his feet into the carpet and made his way down the hall to his corner office where he found his brother lounging in his chair.

He and Poe had managed over the last few years to mend their broken relationship and were now closer than ever before. Poe was the only one who knew the whole story of Ben’s soulmate. A thing like that would create a strong bond between anyone. The only reason Ben ever considered throwing something at Poe these days was when he found the man in the position he was currently in – leaned back in Ben’s favorite chair with his feet up on the desk and crossed at the ankle.

“Ben! The nice lady at the front desk let me in. I have a proposition for you that you might be very interested in,” Poe exclaimed.

“You mean you flirted your way in?” Ben inquired as he walked around the desk to where Poe’s feet were propped up. “Feet on the floor and rear out of my chair,” he grumpily ordered as he swatted Poe away.

“Someone is in a feisty mood,” Poe declared cheerfully as he swung his feet to the floor and moved away from both chair and desk.

“Rough morning. Lost another PA and Snoke is not pleased,” Ben explained as he sat heavily and pulled up to his computer to continue working.

“Lost? Fired you mean. And I know,” Poe stated matter-of-factly to Ben’s shock. “Heard you talking about it, but I figured she wouldn’t last long anyway with the way she was flirting with you. That’s why I am here. I have a friend in need of a temporary job. She is traveling…”

“Poe. No.” Ben bluntly said in an effort to shut him down. He didn’t need his brother meddling here, and he also didn’t want to bring someone in who could get hurt while working for FO. Of course, that was something that he didn’t really have the ability to explain to Poe.

“No, hear me out. She is brilliant, well organized, skilled with all things English – which we all know you need as much help with as possible -, super sweet, hard working…”

“I get the picture, Poe,” Ben snarled. “But a super sweet girl won’t last long here.”

“Please, she can handle anything,” Poe snapped back. “She just needs a temporary job while she is in town. That would give you time to look for the perfect little personal assistant.”

“Not just anyone can do this job, Poe. You know that means whoever it is has to deal with me which is a lot on a good day. Not only that, but they would have to deal with my boss and FO in general. It would take a special kind of person,” Ben reminded him.

“She is special and quite possibly over qualified. I have her resume right here and an application that I got for her and had her fill out last week,” Poe said as he passed a folder to Ben.

Ben huffed at his brother irritably as he snatched the folder from his brother’s hands. Whatever he expected when he flipped it open was most certainly not what he saw. Her cover letter and resume were impeccably done showcasing her obvious skill with English. She co-owned a small shop in Montana with her guardian while she was in college and before that she was a manager of a restaurant in Jakku, Texas. If her age added up right, she was a manager at 19. Plus, her college education was impressive – graduated valedictorian with a degree in mass communication. Really truly, the woman was over qualified for the job. Between the resume, cover letter, and application, Ben’s curiosity went through the roof. He caught himself reading through it all with rapt attention. Worse, Poe caught how interested he was.

“Like what you see?” Poe asked innocently.

Right when Ben would have responded, a tall brunette with hazel eyes and perfect hair and make-up admitted herself to Ben’s office. Someone really needed to teach her what was appropriate to wear to work. It looked more appropriate for a club than a banking firm.

“Good morning, Mr. Solo,” she said smoothly. “I am Bazine Netal. Mr. Snoke sent me to be your new personal assistant since you have such trouble finding one. What can I do to help you?”

_Great_ , Ben thought bitterly. _Another flirt_.

“Get out of my office and don’t come in here unless I call for you,” he snarled as he closed the folder and turned to his computer to check his upcoming schedule. “Actually, Miss Netal. Please add an appointment for tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. for a Miss Rey Niima. Clear my schedule for it and make sure that others know that I will be busy during that time.”

Probably for the best that he doesn’t tell Bazine Netal that this was an interview for the job that she clearly thought was going to be hers. This woman had a reputation around the building, and he had no desire to know what she might do if she found out that she had made an appointment for her replacement. Rey’s resume and application looked good enough that he was prepared to go ahead and hire her without the interview, but for the sake of formalities, he was going to have her come in anyway. The fact that she was looking for a temporary placement eased his mind about her working for First Order.

“Of course. I will do that right now,” she said sweetly. A little too sweetly.

“You won’t regret this, Ben. She will blow your mind with how amazing a person she is,” Poe gushed.

“One of your many girlfriends?”

Poe guffawed as he considered that thought. “NO! She would kill me. She is a great friend but honestly a little intimidating. She does _not_ put up with anyone’s crap so you know she would not put up with me.”

Poe continued to laugh heartily as he walked out of Ben’s office. Ben couldn’t help but chuckle a little at hearing his brother’s laughter as he snorted out something about how Rey would squash him like bug if he asked her out. Well, that was encouraging. If Poe was intimidated by her, maybe this could work. Temporarily.

Ben pulled up his email and sent Rey a message asking if she was free for the interview the tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. In retrospect, he probably should have asked her before blocking off the time in his own schedule, but at least it had given him a way to get rid of Bazine.

The rest of the day dragged by. He had hoped to be able to collect some more information to send to his contact while he didn’t have a PA staring over his shoulder constantly, but Bazine was in his office far too often under the guise of checking to see if he needed help with anything. Each time she came in, he would remind her that he would call for her if he did need help. The reminders became more and more irritable. Ben had never been so happy to clock out in his life.

The following day started out like all the others. Nothing in his routine suggested that his life was about to be derailed, but the slightly irksome ringing in his ears was definitely derailing his attitude. He pushed through his morning schedule the best he could while rubbing at his ears and avoiding Bazine. Every little thing that woman did made him want to lash out. Right when he was about to put his fist through the wall, his office intercom went off.

“Mr. Solo. Your ten o’clock is here. Sending her up.”

Ben took a few minutes to calm himself down before he stood up from his desk, adjusted his tie, and strode purposefully out of his office to intercept Miss Niima before Bazine caught her. Rounding the corner to the waiting area for his office, Ben stopped short. All went silent. Bazine was standing toe-to-toe with the most stunning woman Ben had ever laid eyes on.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Things are about to get really interesting! Didn't feel like the interaction between Rey and Ben fit with this chapter. It fits better in the next which will be up on Sunday! All of that chapter will be from Rey's POV.
> 
> Thank you to everyone who has been reading and leaving comments and kudos! It means a lot!


	7. A Friend in Need

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy Valentine's Day! How about a look into Rey's head? We are gonna back up just a little, and then plow straight ahead into the meeting!

Rey was thrilled to be back in Chandrilla. It had taken all she had to make it happen, but thankfully she had Finn to make it possible. He was a surprise friend she made while living in Jakku, Texas. They both worked at The Outpost Diner while they were freshman in college. When she had to move to Montana before her sophomore year, they had made it a point to ensure they stayed in touch – a feat far easier said than done. Now, four years later, Finn was the one person best able to help her. In the time between her moving to Montana and college graduation, Finn had moved to the very place she desperately wanted to be.

The apartment that he shared with his best friend Poe had a spare bedroom that they had willingly offered her when she called to tell him her plans. Well, she told him part of her plans. There were a few things she had to leave out just like she always had. He knew that she would only be in town for at most six months and that she was there looking for someone. What he didn’t know was why she would only be there for such a short time when she wanted to be there all the time. It was the same reason she moved from Texas to the middle of nowhere Montana, and that was info she tried to not even think about herself if she could help it.

With her temporary move to Chandrilla, step one in her plan was complete. She was where she needed to be. Now, she just needed a job so she would have the funds to find Kylo. For that, she would need a job, and Poe had informed her after knowing her only a few days that he knew someone who he thought she would be able to work well with. The application had been a pain to fill out since half of the information she put down was only a month old. She still used the big things that had actually happened in her life such as her work history and school, but she had to change around some of the finer details like her birth date. There was plenty else that she was forced to change. At least she was smart enough to print out all the details from Marshal Andor’s computer before she ran off.

All that was left now was the agonizing wait as Poe took her paperwork to his brother. Poe said he was a good man that genuinely needed some help but couldn’t hold onto any of the help that he already had for various reasons. He also warned her not to expect anything right away since Ben tended to be hard headed. Rey didn’t mind waiting for a response, but she wouldn’t wait much more than a couple days. She knew that her time in Chandrilla was limited and that she needed to make the most out of every moment she had available. Even her six month projection was being optimistic.

Just two hours after Poe left with her application, the chime for her email went off on her phone. The sender left her shocked. It was from Ben Solo.

**To: Rey Niima (reylo@holonet.com)**

**Subject: Interview**

**Dear Miss Niima**

**I received your application and resume today courtesy of my brother. I don’t generally except applications in this way, but I will get over it this time. I must say that I was impressed by what I saw and thoroughly confused by why someone with your capabilities would want to be a personnel assistant. I would however be glad to meet with you. Would you be able available for an interview tomorrow morning at 10:00?**

**Sincerely**

**Ben Solo**

**CFO First Order Financial**

Rey was absolutely giddy with excitement when she read the email. Yes, there were some minor grammatical/spelling mistakes, but Poe said that grammar was not Ben’s strong point and that his PA would typically do a grammar check before he sent out any messages. Poor man clearly needed help.

After quickly firing a response back, Rey slipped into her closet and pulled out her favorite sleeveless white a-line dress and matching heels. Sliding into the bathroom, she started planning out how she would style her hair and make-up. If at all possible, she wanted to make a good impression in person and not just on paper.

When she finally went to bed that night, Rey found herself restless. She hadn’t been this restless since the day before she was supposed to meet Kylo. Just the thought of him was enough to bring tears to her eyes as she reached up and ran her fingers over the scar running down the back of her skull behind her left ear. It had been so long since the injury and since she had last heard his soothing voice. She just wished that the last words she heard from him had not been the words of a scared man who had no idea what was going on. She knew one day she would have to tell him. While she didn’t love the idea of reliving those memories, she just knew that it would afford her an opportunity to be held in his arms.

“We will see each other soon, Kylo,” she whispered into the stillness of her room as she lay trying to sleep. “I just have to get this job so I can stick around and find you.”

After a fitful night’s rest, Rey was more than ready to get up the next morning. She found that she had plenty of time to get ready and eat breakfast since she got up much earlier than normal. After realizing that she still had another hour and a half to go before she needed to leave, she decided that she couldn’t just sit around at home waiting. She grabbed her purse and went for a stroll through the park for old time’s sake. The beautiful and familiar scenery helped relax her. As she passed the rocks next to the pond, she paused and wondered whatever happened to the boy who would spend his afternoons drawing there.

Finally, the time came and she found herself standing outside a daunting, modern office building. Straightening her dress, she confidently strode into the lobby and stopped at the front desk where an older woman sat clicking away at her computer.

“Good morning. My name is Rey Niima. I have an appointment with Ben Solo at 10:00,” she stated in calmer fashion than she felt. While she waited for the receptionist to comm Mr. Solo’s office, the side of Rey’s neck started itching right at the spot where her scar was. It was always doing something like that, but this was particularly annoying.

“You may go on up Miss Niima. He is expecting you. Eighth floor. Turn right after you get off the elevator. His office is at the end of the hall. Miss Netal will direct you,” the elderly receptionist supplied kindly. Rey hoped that this dear sweet lady was not the hot woman that was supposedly here yesterday. Poe went on about her for a solid hour. If it was, she would have to give him a hard time about it.

Thanking the receptionist, Rey moved to the elevator and pushed the button for the eighth floor. The whole way up, her scar drove her crazy. By the time she finally arrived at the designated floor, she was ready to claw off her skin. A scalping sounded like a decent alternative.

Exiting the elevator, Rey hesitantly made her way down the hall in the direction of Mr. Solo’s office. She had a perfect view of the cityscape through the wall of windows to her right. If she was correct in her assumption, this meant that her potential new boss had a corner office with a view! She hoped she got the job for that reason alone.

Once she was at the waiting area for his office, Rey found herself looking around for this Miss Netal. There was no one at the desk and no other way to know where she might be. Thankfully, she didn’t have to wait long. In just a couple minutes, a rather gorgeous and disgustingly perfect brunette in a too tight outfit with a plunging neckline and short hem walked around the corner. Her lack of professionalism left a bad taste in Rey’s mouth immediately.

“Who are you?” Bazine asked snidely.

“I am Rey Niima. I have an interview with Mr. Solo at 10:00 for the personal assistant’s position,” Rey replied cautiously but boldly. This didn’t look like a woman to be trifled with. Good thing Rey wasn’t either.

“Ah. The position you were called in for has been filled. You may leave,” the obviously conceited assistant snipped as she tossed her hair over shoulder and sauntered up to Rey. “I trust you can show yourself out.”

Rey had only just met the woman and already she knew not to trust her. She gave off a weird vibe. Instead, Rey crossed her arms, planted her feet, and pursed her lips at the woman.

“If that is the case then I believe that Mr. Solo should tell me so himself,” Rey stated resolutely. “He set up the appointment; he can break it. I am going nowhere until I speak with him.”

Whatever the other woman was about to say died in her throat as a long shadow fell across the floor beside them. Bazine was the first to look over at the owner.

“Oh! Mr. Solo, I was just…” Bazine began but was rather abruptly interrupted.

“I know good and well what you were doing, Miss Netal,” a deep voice rumbled sending shivers down Rey’s spine. “Get back to work and do not presume things upon me,” he said with finality.

Rey finally worked up the courage to look at the speaker. When she turned her head, she was met with nothing but a wall of chest. His shoulders were broad, and he filled out his black suit unbelievably well. Her eyes slowly turned upwards to find a very familiar face framed by shoulder length black hair. It was the boy from the park, and he was much better looking up close than he was far away. His hazel-brown eyes were glittering in the sunlight that was filtering through the windows and highlighting his large nose and ears as well as the many moles dotted around his face.

All her tension melted away at the recognition of who he was, and, when his eyes met hers, she realized that he recognized her too. In that moment, she got what she had wanted to see each afternoon as she sat in the park, and she was the reason. He smiled at her displaying a set of slightly crooked teeth. She quickly decided that all his little imperfections were quite charming.

“It’s you,” he breathed.

Rey giggled a little as she adjusted her purse on her shoulder and reached out to shake his hand. “Rey Niima. Its nice to finally meet you.”

“Ben Solo. And the feeling is mutual,” he replied as he reached out to engulf her hand in his own. When her skin brushed up against his, she felt like it lit everywhere he touched on fire. He must have felt it too based on the way his eyes widened by a fraction. Before he quickly jerked his hand away from hers, she thought she saw guilt flash through his eyes.

“I’m glad you could come in for an interview so quickly. If you will follow me, my office is this way,” he said as he directed her down the hall.

Rey was really looking forward to this interview now. The boy in the park had always held her curious attention, and now here she was at his office being interviewed for a job. By him. To be his personal assistant. There was a part of her that felt like maybe she should feel guilty for how excited she was about this and how attracted she was to him, but the other part of her was enjoying it. Just one more reason to find Kylo quickly.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well? Any thoughts on what happened to Rey? Or their connection? 
> 
> I plan to put up the next chapter Monday night. It should be lots of Reylo from this point forward! Thanks for all the comments and kudos! I am really enjoying writing this one!


	8. The Interview

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As promised, here is the next chapter. Lots of a Rey and Ben. They are precious and slightly clueless. Also, how about an official moodboard now that I have dropped a hint or two as to what is going on?

Ben Solo’s office was beautiful! As she suspected, it was a corner office with floor to ceiling windows in place of two of the walls. The other two walls had only one window right in the middle of the wall that faced away from Miss Netal’s desk. There were two desks within the office itself. One was slightly smaller than the other, but both were a beautiful natural oak. Behind his desk was a wall of cabinets and shelves stocked with finance books, business portfolios, and a few small knick-knacks. His personal chair was a large, cushy, black rolling chair that didn’t look like it was standard issue. Opposite his desk were two white rolling chairs with comfy grey cushions.

In the center of the room was a small but cozy looking grey sectional sofa with a black floor lamp situated behind it. A large grey, white, and black rug was laid out under a white table placed in front of the sofa. Overall, his office was very modern but inviting. The only thing that Rey felt like was missing in this space was a plant. Or two. Maybe four or five. Maybe, if she got the job, she would get him a plant to go on the table.

“Again, thank you for agreeing to this interview so quickly,” Ben continued as he motioned for her to sit in one of the chairs across from his desk. He settled in the rather comfortable looking black swivel chair behind his desk and leaned his elbows against the desktop. Steepling his fingers, he leveled her with a look that she figured probably intimidated most people on her side of the desk. She found it rather attractive.

“I should be thanking you for reaching out so quickly to someone who was not looking for a permanent position,” she insisted.

“May I be very honest with you, Miss Niima?” he inquired tautly. After Rey motioned for him to continue, he answered: “I was prepared to hire you as soon as I saw your application. You are more than qualified for this job. I just wanted to meet you before making that decision.”

“And? Do I measure up? Or have I blown my chance at this job?” she asked nervously.

“Oh no, I still want to hire you. I am just very curious about a few things. First of all, you have stated that you need a temporary position which, for various reasons, is what I would prefer to fill this job with anyway. I need an idea of how long temporary is.”

“Up to six months. I expect I will be back with… back in Montana by January maybe February. Though it could be as short at six weeks. Depends on if I did my research correctly.”

“Ok. That was both very informative and somewhat vague. Can I ask why you moved so far from home to be here an unspecified but short amount of time? I just want to be sure that there will be no issues,” Ben assured her.

“Ummm… My reasons for being here are very personal. I haven’t even told my closest friends the whole story. Just know that I am here to attempt to reconnect with someone from my past, and it could take more or less time than I actually have. In the meantime, I need a job so that I will not be leech on my friends lives,” she explained not uncomfortably. For some odd reason, she felt very comfortable around him.

Ben nodded his head in acceptance of her answer as he leaned back in his chair. “When you would you be able to start?”

“Are you really offering me the job?” Rey asked incredulously. He hadn’t even really interviewed her!

“I can’t promise to be nice, and the pay isn’t great,” he seemed to sit and contemplate something for a moment before he asked another question. “If I were at any point to ask you to quit – quit not fire you – would you be willing to do that? With no explanation other than I know things you do not? Of course, I would give you a good reference in the event of that happening so don’t even worry about that.”

That was certainly on odd question, but he seemed sincere. What could possibly cause the man to ask this?! Poe trusted him though, so she decided that she could do that as well.

“Yes. If it truly felt necessary, I would. And to answer your other question, I am available to start as soon as you need me.”

_

Ben can honestly say that it had been a long time since he felt such relief. Rey taking the job quickly meant that Bazine would be gone quickly. That was one person he would not miss having around. Rey on the other hand - he really enjoyed just being in her presence. Always did. Even when they were just sitting near one another at the park.

Even then, he thought she was pretty but now… he actually felt a little guilty with how attracted to her he was. That white dress complimented her tanned skin and freckles beautifully. It also brought out the green in her pretty hazel eyes. She was slightly taller than average and athletic. He definitely avoided looking at a certain section of her face. That proved difficult when he had to pay attention to what she was saying. Which, incidentally, was everything she was saying right now.

Some of her story was definitely vague, but he couldn’t blame her for that. They had only just officially met and were nowhere near the sharing of personal secrets stage of their acquaintance. The fact that he could tell that she was telling and truth eased any anxious thoughts from his mind. He also understood her need to do something desperate to find someone that she had been separated from. If he had the chance to find out what happened to Kira…

“What are the odds that you could stay here and fill out paperwork so that you can start work tomorrow morning?” he inquired. Best to shut down thoughts of Kira during the workday. If they came up, he would get nothing done.

“T-t-tomorrow?” she questioned as her eyes grew wide. Just as Ben was thinking that he had put too much on her, she gave him a dazzling smile. “Yes. I can do that!”

It had only been at most fifteen minutes, but he had smiled more in that time than he had in a couple years and here he was smiling again.

“I have the paperwork right here,” he said as he leaned down and pulled the file out of his desk. “You can take it and work on it at the desk over there. That will be your desk anyway.”

Ben passed her the papers and directed her to the assistant’s desk on the other side of his office. She looked from it to him to the desk and back with a quizzical frown on her face. “If that is the assistant’s desk, why is…”

“Why is Bazine out there? You met her, right? The second she stepped in here, I sent her out there. The only time I would need you to use that desk is if I am out or if I have a meeting that you would not be involved in. Otherwise, that,” he said as he gestured to the smaller desk on the other side of his office, “is your area.”

He watched as she looked at the desk and around the office and nervously sucked her lip in between her teeth. She soon turned her attention back to him and asked: “Can I put my cactus on it? I only ask because I notice you don’t have any plants in here or really on this floor. Not sure if it is because of an allergy or something so I want to check before I bring it in,” she said as she continued to worry her bottom lip.

“I typically have a no plant policy.” The sudden drop of her face made him back-peddle unusually fast (what had gotten into him today?!). “Typically. A cactus should be fine though. They are slightly different from any other plant.”

The happy smile she gave him sent his heart soaring. He watched her take the folder and walk around to her desk. When she turned her back, he caught sight of something that made his gut wrench in pity. If her hair had been down, he never would have seen the long, thin scar that ran down the back of her neck near her left ear. That must have been quite the head injury. He found himself hoping that she didn’t have a soulmate. Health class was never his favorite in school, but he paid close attention during the section on soulmates. Head injuries were known troublemakers when it came to soulmate bonds. That particular injury she had would have most assuredly been felt by a soulmate which in turn would have caused her more pain.

“Let me know if you need anything at all, Miss Niima,” he instructed her as he pulled up his own work in a hurry to banish thoughts of soulmates. With any good luck, Bazine would stay away so they could both work in peace.

Her silent, easy company made the morning much more relaxing than normal. If this is what it would be like with her there, he felt like he might actually enjoy work for the first time in his life. In fact, he was enjoying things so much that he didn’t even realize when two hours had passed and lunch time had arrived.

“Mr. Solo,” her rich voice cut into the quiet. “Here is my paperwork. What time do I need to be here tomorrow?”

Not wishing the time with her to end, he found himself blurting out, “Why don’t you join me for lunch? We can go over the details and I can give you a tour of the building after.” Who _was_ he today?

She seriously considered his offer for a moment before agreeing to it. For that, he would forever be grateful. He printed off the rest of her contract and tucked it under his arm before escorting her out of the building while easily ignoring the incredulous look Bazine was giving him. They went to a nearby Italian restaurant where they worked out the details of her job and signed the rest of her contract. Eventually, they ended up walking around all eight floors of First Order Financial with him giving her a detailed tour. The way she held on to every word he said kept him talking.

After she left around 4:00 p.m., Ben found himself racked with guilt. He had taken too much of a liking to her. Kira deserved better than a soulmate who betrayed her memory by taking a liking to the first beautiful women he saw. No matter, he made a deal with himself to look after Rey. After all, FO was not a safe place to be, and he was definitely not the safest person to be around. If anyone ever found out what he was doing at FO, that would certainly put her in danger.

Realizing that he was alone for the first time all week, Ben shut and locked his office door before pulling out the files that he had been cautiously hiding since he ran across them a few days ago. They were from the Canto Bight account, and the numbers were as shady as always. To keep up appearances, he would still occasionally take some of these files to Snoke so that he could “double check that everything was right.” Regardless, he always made extra copies and kept one in the safe under his desk. The safe only he knew about or could get into. After all, it required his thumbprint. That certainly made it harder to access. In the entire time it had been in his office, he only had one person ask about it. That PA had not lasted long.

Sliding the paperwork in his briefcase, Ben clocked out for the day and headed home. When he was safely behind the four walls of his apartment, he pulled out the burn phone that he was given at his last meeting and dialed the only number on it. The person on the other end picked up but never said a word.

“I have some more paperwork for your company to look at. When would be a good time to meet?” he asked smoothly never once betraying his anxiety.

“Tomorrow night. Dex’s Diner. 8:00 p.m.” was her swift response before he was met with the beep of an ended call.

“See you then,” he replied for no one in particular.

After hitting the end call button for no obvious reason, he broke the phone and placed the two halves in separate trash cans. He then returned to his kitchen to get a glass of water and take the muscle relaxer his doctor had prescribed. There was no way he would sleep otherwise.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh Ben! He is into some real trouble! 
> 
> Back to work for me tomorrow which means that it will be a few days before the next chapter. Probably Thursday or Friday. I truly do appreciate the support for this story! I wasn't expecting it to go this well!


	9. Working Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So this chapter doesn't really do much to further the plot. Its main purpose is to allow Rey to begin settling into life and to reestablish a foundation for the relationship between her and Ben. On that note, enjoy!

The first week working at First Order was not a smooth ride. Oh, working with Ben Solo was a dream; it was everyone else that caused major drama. Maybe if someone had seen how easy it was for her to get the job, they would assume that everything would go well. In all actuality, Rey had never looked forward to the weekend more. Between the people and adjusting to the new environment, Rey was exhausted.

When she walked into work that first morning, Ben warned her that working at FO could be slightly stressful - a statement which was followed up by him unceremoniously dry swallowing two ibuprofen and then trudging out of his office to where Bazine had just plopped her things at the assistant’s desk outside his office. Rey could hear the increasingly frustrated exchange that happened between the two. A few moments later, an angry and red-faced Ben Solo stomped back in his office followed by a persistent Bazine.

“Mr. Solo, I really must protest this! Mr. Snoke…”

Ben turned furious eyes on the woman who was not taking the hint. “I already told you Miss Netal,” he began in a terrifyingly low, calm voice, “Snoke sent you to fill in the position until I found someone else to do the job. I have done so. You are dismissed. Go back to Snoke’s office.”

Rey knew that Ben had sent Bazine a message yesterday to let her know that he had found a PA and that her services would no longer be needed. He had also spoken with her earlier that morning about packing up her stuff at the desk, but she was apparently in no mood to listen. She thought that since Snoke had put her there, that she had every right to continue being there.

Watching their interaction with an ever-growing annoyance, Rey soon decided that she had heard enough. Quickly formulating a plan to get rid of Bazine, Rey sent out a couple texts. The responses came just a moment later. Rey stepped out from behind her desk and over to the coffee station in the office. She made a cup of coffee for Ben just the way that Poe said he liked it and gathered the cup along with her courage.

“Mr. Solo,” she boldly called attention to herself and away from the warring parties. “Here is your coffee. I also wanted to remind you that you have a conference call in just a couple minutes with Black Squadron Flight.”

Ben blinked rapidly at her for a moment before he caught on. “Right! Can’t believe I almost forgot about that. Bazine, Rey, you will need to step out of my office so I can take this call.”

Bazine spluttered and protested until Rey cut in once again. “How about I help you clear out the desk so you will make it to the mail room on time. I just received a message that Phasma is waiting on you there.” Rey said pointedly. Like Ben, she had a tone that could be hard to argue with. Unfortunately, Bazine was a professional arguer.

“There is no conference call with any Black Squadron Flight today! In fact, there is no Black Squadron…” Bazine screeched.

No sooner had the words come out of her mouth than the phone rang. All three heads turned to look at the phone with varying expressions - Ben with amazement, Rey with pride, and Bazine with shocked horror.

“First Order Financial. This is Ben Solo speaking.” There was a short pause during which Bazine looked incredulously from Ben to Rey and back. “Mr. Black, glad we could meet to talk about your, uh, records.”

Ben stumbled at the finish, but Rey was ready to rescue him. She motioned for Bazine to follow her and gently but firmly escorted the flabbergasted flirt out to the desk she had been making use of.

“I don’t know who you think you are, little girl, but this is my job. You cannot have it. He is mine,” Bazine snarled.

“Miss Netal, it appears that you have so much to learn. You have now disobeyed a direct order from your immediate supervisor several times and are well on your way to doing it with another supervisor. You could lose your job for that. Lucky you though, I contacted the lady at the front desk who in turn contacted Phasma. She is saving your job by transferring you to the mail room until further notice,” Rey supplied not unkindly but firmly like a parent would a small child. She really wanted to be nasty, but she restrained that desire. It was so odd how protective she was of Ben.

Before Bazine was able to reply to Rey’s speech, a tall and stormy looking blonde-haired woman stalked up to them.

“Bazine! I expected you downstairs ten minutes ago! Gather your things and get moving!” Phasma bellowed. “If any of my people ever cause Mr. Solo any more trouble, Rey, please let me know.”

With that, Bazine was ushered off the eighth floor. Rey took that time to clean up the desk area that she had been using while Ben was on his “conference call.” Dragging Poe into this was a stroke of genius. It was a move that she would not be able to repeat, but she was thankful that it worked this time.

Five minutes later, Ben came around the corner and stood in front of Bazine’s old desk with his arms crossed. There was a genuine awe-struck and slightly amused look on his face. Rey found herself grinning smugly back at him.

“Is there something I can help you with, Mr. Solo?” she asked innocently.

“Let’s try not to make a habit out of that. I would hate for you to get caught in a lie,” he replied warmly. “Although it might be a good idea to have a permanent plan like that in place. Your quick thinking was impressive and appreciated. If that had gone on any longer…” he grimaced and proceeded to motion for her to come back to the office with him.

“Also,” he suddenly said as he whipped around to face her, “You are the first PA I have ever had to make my coffee right. As of today, you are my favorite.”

Rey felt the blush creep up her neck and into her face. She hadn’t been anyone’s favorite since Kylo. It was a feeling she was not used to anymore, but she loved it.

“I have only been your PA for,” she pulled up her sleeve and checked the time, “three hours and I am already your favorite? Your standards must truly be low.”

They laughed as they went back to work settling at their desks in companionable silence. The silence was broken only by the click of computer keys, the scratch of pen and pencil on paper, the ringing of the telephone, and the occasional question or comment. Rey often found herself sitting at his desk editing any messages that he sent out. By lunchtime, Rey decided that she had not felt so comfortable with someone since Kylo.

“I am taking my lunch break. Is there anything you need before I go?” When he replied in the negative, she turned to go to the employee break room on their floor.

Before stepping out, she took one look back at him and felt her breath catch in her throat. Possibly the same age. Same line of work. Same eye color. Same emotions pulled from her by them both. She reached up and rubbed at the scar that was calm for the first time in years. Was it possible?

-

How long had it been since Ben was able to focus this well? The fog that had taken up residence in his mind at a point that he did not remember had receded a little. He didn’t feel a constant need to pace in order to make his mind work. There was even a small part of him that entertained the idea of maybe going without caffeine for the rest of the day, but that was quickly shelved. No way did he desire a caffeine withdrawal headache.

Maybe that was it. Maybe it was that cup of coffee that Rey made. It was exceptionally good. Perhaps he should have her make his coffee more often especially if it was going to affect him this way.

Ben heaved a contented sigh, happy for the first time in a while with how much he had accomplished, and pulled out his lunch. He heated up the leftovers from dinner the night before and settled on the sofa across from his desk. This was always one of his favorite things to do. He would sit in the peace and quiet of his office with his lunch and a book. Sometimes he would even sketch, but he always enjoyed the view. Truly, that view was basically the only thing he liked about working at FO. Well, prior to Rey anyway. He had a feeling that he was going to love working with her around.

Not twenty minutes into his lunch hour, he had the strangest urge to stretch his legs. He never wanted to go for a walk through or around the outside of the building. It was his preference to stay in his office away from everyone else, but today, his body rebelled. There was an unignorable restlessness there. Reading was pointless. He would read the same thing over and over and still not understand what had happened. Even his food was unappealing.

Tossing his book on the table and closing up his food, Ben grumbled all the way out his office and down the hall where he was met with a sight that just shouldn’t have been. Rey was sitting at the other personal assistant’s desk, and she was working. Her lunch box was on the floor behind her, and her eyes were glassy and red. Quietly, he checked his phone to see what her work status was. Clocked in – when she was supposed to be at lunch.

“Miss Niima,” he called out startling her in the process. “Did you eat lunch yet? You can honestly take that break. Don’t feel like you have to keep working all the time.”

There was a long pause while she looked at him obviously trying to figure out what to say. She finally hung her head and spoke so softly that he had to step closer and really focus to understand what she said.

“I went to lunch. It was made clear that I am not welcome in the lunch room.”

Hearing about the behavior of others around First Order was not a surprise to Ben, but it still hurt him to see her sitting there working when she should be taking a break and eating. Quickly landing on a course of action, he stepped around to the other side of the desk, took the mouse away from her, and clocked her out for lunch. He then collected her lunch box and guided her back to his office. When the door was closed, he gestured for her to join him on the sofa as he set her lunchbox on the table. She settled cautiously on the sectional end.

“Eat. You can tell me what happened during that time. If we have a workplace bully, I need to know and so does HR,” he spoke gently since it looked like she might spook easily just then.

“It was nothing really. Just reminders of my childhood. People tended to be unkind to me then, and now I am overly sensitive to it. I doubt they meant harm,” she elaborated.

He nodded in understanding. Oftentimes, talking about a painful past that caused current discomfort was not something that could be done easily. Especially with someone who was basically a stranger. He figured that if it was a real problem, she would tell him once she became more comfortable. After all, they had only known each other for a little over twenty-four hours. That is hardly enough time to build up much trust. But then again, maybe she just needed to be given permission to – what is the preschool word for it? – tattle tale on those who need an attitude adjustment because Force knows there were plenty of those around First Order.

“If they do say or do something wrong, I want you to tell me. Okay?” he pleaded.

Under any other circumstance, Ben might have found the way she looked him then to be funny. Her head was cocked off to the side and there was a look of hope on her face. Whatever it was that she thought clearly helped her relax. She agreed to tell him should something come up; though, she also admitted that she had a bad habit of just letting things slide until it was too late to do anything about it. A couple days later, she did let him know that a couple of the male employees had made some rather crass comments that were the very reason she did not enjoy the idea of going back to the breakroom.

“Well, if you don’t feel comfortable eating in the break room, you can always eat in here with me. I don’t mind.”

Ben could have sworn that she was about to hug him, but at the last second, she seemed to change her mind and just gave him her brightest smile. From that day on, they spent lunch sitting on the sofa in his office while reading, writing, and drawing. Through their lunch time conversations, they learned that they had many things in common and that their differences were complimentary. Where she was weak, he was strong. Where he was lacking in know-how, she was very capable. Due to their seemingly high compatibility, within that first week, they became known around the office as the dynamic duo.

A large portion of the other employees still made life difficult for Rey, and, much to Ben’s relief, she kept her word and told him about that. After a little digging around, it was discovered that Bazine had attempted to spread a few nasty rumors about Rey. Phasma shut things down before it went too far, but the damage was still done. Phasma wasn’t exactly the kindest person, but she put a strong value on order, and Bazine was interrupting that order which cost her the job that she so jealousy had clung to.

Ben also further handled the situation by sending out two emails. The first was a company-wide reminder of the upcoming employee evaluations. The second was sent out to HR which resulted in company-wide memo about workplace bullying and the consequences. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what had happened or to sense the threat. Those who would have caused Rey trouble now gave her a wide berth, but she didn’t appear to pay it any attention. She always had lunch with him.

That time with her at lunch certainly became his favorite part of the day. Sure, they disagreed about plenty, but they rarely had a real argument. There was one thing in particular that almost caused him to lose his control and start what would have been a ridiculous argument, but an unexpected thought cooled his anger swiftly. The first time he saw her pull out her notebook to write, he had simply noticed that she was writing, but then he saw the front of the notebook. It had a picture of daisies on it. That immediately had his attention and his anger spiked. As kindly as he could, Ben questioned her about it and learned that they were her favorite flowers. That admission compounded with his growing list of things he knew about Rey was like a bucket of cold water on the flames of his anger.

Had it not been for the fact that her birthday was all wrong, Ben might have entertained the surprising thought that ran through his mind… but no. It was pointless. Plenty of people loved daisies and writing and, were bad at math but good at English. And there were definitely more people out there who had similar likes and dislikes. And just because she had an injury that absolutely would silence a soulmate bond did _not_ mean that she was Kira. Did it? That was a hope that his heart couldn’t take. So… he dismissed it as wishful thinking.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to remind you that Ben is the one who thinks Kira is dead. Rey does not have that problem working against her. And yes, they are connecting dots; but, let's face it, who is going to know them better than they know each other? They are bound to recognize one another. Also, a quick reminder from chapter 7, not all of the information Ben has about Rey is correct. 
> 
> Next chapter will be up over the weekend. We shall return to official plot then! Things are really going to get exciting!


	10. Evidence

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Back to plot. Ready to find out who Ben's first PA was, or who Ben has been talking to?

“How is it going working at Satan’s Financial?” Finn asked one night after Rey had been working at First Order for over a month. He had some definitely negative and justifiable feelings about that particular organization.

“Aside from the near constant headache that I deal with while I am there, it’s fine. Honestly. The people are not exactly the most friendly, but I hardly interact with them. Most of my time is spent working with Ben,” she elaborated almost dreamily.

As time stretched on, she was becoming more and more curious about Ben, and all that curiosity was brought on by how much he reminded her of her Kylo. It was to the point that she had decided against hiring a private investigator. The only thing that gave her pause was that every time she threw out hints about who she was, it was met with indifference. Anytime they touched and felt the familiar electricity, he looked and behaved like he was guilty of an awful crime. That was another thing that made her think it was him – the ability to self-flagellate like it was second nature.

The two big puzzle pieces, however, that really grabbed her attention and made her not hire the PI were Snoke and Leia. She learned about two weeks into working with Ben that Snoke had been his college advisor at Chandrilla University, and after watching them interact, it was like she had front row seats to everything Kylo had ever described about his advisor. A few days after learning that, she learned that his mother co-owned a technology giant called Skywalker Industries with her brother. Rey had barely slept that night from the excitement that had coursed through her. It was stronger than a caffeine high.

“I was one of that man’s many personal assistants. He fired me for no good reason,” Finn hissed.

“Finn,” his fiancé Rose admonished, “You know good and well that he asked you to step down, but you refused. Even you said that he seemed to genuinely be concerned about something. Plus, he gave you a referral and glowing reference that got you the job at Skywalker.”

“I know, but still. He never really gave me a good reason as to why he fired me other than snooping around his office. Which I wasn’t doing! If it was about that safe he keeps stashed away somewhere around his desk, then I would assume he is doing something worse than I did when I noticed the safe. He kept changing its exact location and would deny its existence,” he grumbled.

Safe? What safe? Rey had spent nearly every moment from 7:30 to 4:30 every day for the last five weeks in that office and she had never seen a safe. The only thing odd was that she worked a schedule that was off from his by thirty minutes. He came in at 8:00 and left at 5:00. She kinda thought she would need to be there while he was so that she could, you know, assist. Wasn’t that her job? But he always insisted that she stick to her schedule. The only time she ever pulled overtime was a few days ago when they were fixing an issue that was caused by an idiot in the legal department.

When she asked him one time if there was anything that he needed help with on a big account that he kept mentioning, he waved her off. It was highly unusual for him to not need her help on a large account, but for some reason, he was determined to do this one alone. Whatever that account was, it made him grouchy. And he did seem to work on it when no one else was around. Maybe Finn was right. Maybe he was up to something…

A loud snapping noise by her ear brought Rey back to the conversation she was having with Rose and Finn.

“There you are. You spaced out on us pretty good for a little while!” Finn exclaimed.

“I’m sorry. Just tired,” she explained. When that didn’t seem to satisfy her friends, she used a partial lie. “Ben said that working at First Order would be exhausting on a good day, and he was right. Those people are so draining to work with. Bunch of vampires.”

That seemed to satisfy Finn and Rose the later of whom quickly turned the conversation to wedding plans. Finn made a hasty exit when magazines and sample swatches were pulled out. The girls spent the rest of the evening elbows deep in rose petals, color swatches, pictures of dresses, invitation designs, and venue options. Because Rose had declared the night to be her last splurge night until after the wedding so she didn’t have any trouble fitting in her dress, the night also included more chocolate than was probably healthy.

Through it all, Rey was able to contain any of her jealousy and all of her tears; but after Rose left, she fell apart in her bedroom. Despite the fact that she was becoming more and more convinced that Ben was Kylo, they still lost so much time. This was what Rey wanted to do. She wanted to be planning her life with her soulmate. Why did Plutt have to ruin her life by dragging her into his illegal dealings?

_

Ben almost felt bad for the way he had brushed Rey off tonight and sent her home, but he wanted her as far away from what he was into as possible. He had his usual thirty minutes after she left to poke through the questionable files. He had another round of digital paperwork to take to his contact. They were scheduled to meet again tonight.

Returning home from work, Ben removed his suit and replaced it with a nondescript outfit. The jeans were perfectly worn and holey, and the black hoodie with tennis shoes were comfy. It was not an outfit that people would assume a highly successful CFO would wear. Outside his apartment building, Ben pulled up his hood and started walking toward the lake as the sun dipped below the horizon.

Chandrilla’s lake was a popular place for most people; however, there were a few places that were generally avoided due to heavy police presence causing people to think they were not safe locations. Oga’s Cantina tended to be one of those locations. Typically, Ben would not be caught dead in a pub, but that was the idea here. He needed to be someplace no one would go looking for him.

The catina was not quite as busy as usual. There were just a few couples taking advantage of the standing tables, and fewer groups still in the booths that curved around the outside edge of the half-circle shaped room. In the middle of the booths, the DJ had his stand set up and was playing some lively tunes. At the bar, the employees were busily making drinks while working around all the odds and ends that the owner found it necessary to have stashed back there. Ben thought the large pet bull frog was a tad excessive.

Skirting around the few patrons, Ben slid into his usual booth at the back of the cantina. Over the last couple years, he had been trained where to sit – in a dark corner where he could see every doorway.

When he was settled, the server came and took his order. He never ordered any of alcoholic beverages. He had seen what his father had put his mother through in his drunken rages, and there was no way he was going to ever be like that. The only things he ever bought at the Cantina were the fish and chips and the carbon freeze. Whoever decided that Powerade, strawberry syrup, and green apple and blueberry poppin pearls would make a good drink deserved an award! The dry ice certainly made it fun to look at as well.

He was half-way into his food when his contact walked in. While he tried to stay discreet in what he wore, she never did. She wore a burgundy dress with a scoop neck. Her high heels – also burgundy – made his feet cramp, and she accessorized with a gold clutch and hairpiece. Her hair was curled and fluffed, and her make-up was heavily applied. Over-the-top was always the word he would give to her.

“Mr. Solo,” she greeted as she slid into the seat across from him.

“Detective Bliss,” Ben returned politely. “I trust the month has been productive.”

“Straight to business then? Very well,” she conceded with a sigh before ordering a glass of water. “No leads on what you gave us last time. The information was good, but it gave us all the usual outcomes. Whatever your employer is doing, he doesn’t want to be caught. And he is getting good at hiding what he is doing too. We haven’t had a good lead in months.”

“Maybe this will be better,” he said as he pulled out the zip drive and passed it to her. “Something a little out of the ordinary. Payments to Bala Tik again, but this time, the location is new. He is no longer at Canto Bight.”

That caught her attention. She perked up and looked at the drive like she could just download the information directly into her brain.

“Where?” she demanded.

“Takodana Castle,” he supplied not sure how he felt that whoever this was had moved closer to Chandrilla.

The smile she gave him reminded Ben of a predator closing in on its prey. Instinctively, Ben knew she would make a dangerous foe.

“Perfect. I have contacts there. Though I do wonder what has him on the move all of the sudden. Any idea what they are using the money for?” she inquired.

“Beats me. We established a while ago that it is something illegal; otherwise, I just gather information and pass it to you. Figuring everything else out, that’s your job,” he snarked.

Zorii pinned him with a look that would have made lesser men squirm. “You need to stop hanging out with my soulmate. He is a bad influence on you.”

“He is not that bad,” Ben defended. “You should meet him in person. Bet he would fall head over heels-“

Ben was cut off abruptly by a sharp kick to the shin. He winced in pain while Zorii gave him an innocent look before standing up and slipping the zip drive into her clutch. He watched her leave while shaking his head and laughing. She and Poe really were perfect for each other. Poe just needed to man-up and stop ignoring her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I put Zorii's dress, Oga's Cantina (from Galaxy's Edge at Disney World), and the carbon freeze in the above picture. Side note - Ben's feeling about that drink are my feelings. It really is good!
> 
> Rey is smart, and Ben is definitely into things that could put him in danger if he gets caught. Next update should be Monday.


	11. So Close

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't hold on to this one until tomorrow. Little time jump (like four months). Sorry in advance for the little bit of heartache in this chapter. We do have an official chapter count now so it won't be too much longer before things start coming together.

The weeks passed and melted into months. The holidays came and went, and by early January, Rey was becoming more desperate as time slipped through her fingers. Shortly after Halloween, Ben had given himself away, and she knew for a fact that he was Kylo. Now, she was running out of time, and it was breaking her heart because she had no idea how to tell him the truth. Not when she knew he thought she was dead.

She had tried a few times already to tell him, but every time she opened her mouth to say it, they were interrupted. Then the holidays came and when they were able to be around each other there were always other people. Alone time had become scarce. With all this time that had passed since she learned the truth, Rey was slowly losing her nerve. She wasn’t scared of Ben. No, she was afraid that now that he knew her, he would not want her – like her parents hadn’t wanted her. That was a reality she couldn’t face.

After all the time she had been in Chandrilla looking for her soulmate, she now found herself outside the place she had done her best to avoid – the Chandrilla Police Department. Being there upped the chances of her being recognized and subsequently found. Clutching a large envelope to her chest and shaking from anxiety, Rey opened the large glass front door and stepped inside.

“Good morning. I have an appointment with Detective Bliss,” she hesitantly stated to the receptionist. The shake in her voice embarrassed her.

“Down the hall on the right. Her name is on the door,” the gruff old officer grumbled.

Walking down the hall, Rey felt her legs shake. She questioned how long it would take for them to give out from under her. The weight of what she was carrying was what kept her upright. She wiped at sweat that was slowly beading up on her forehead when she came to halt in front of the door for the detective in question. Hesitantly, she raised her hand and knocked.

“Come.”

Rey opened the door and was greeted by a dangerous looking female officer. She was seated behind a desk that was piled with folders from active cases, a computer with two screens, and several empty coffee cups. The detective looked tired and irritated, but when she saw Rey, she set it all aside and put on her best professional face. It was a face Rey knew well since she had to wear it nearly all day every day at FO.

“You must be Rey Andor,” the detective replied kindly. “Have a seat. What can I do for you?”

Rey swallowed the anxiety that bubbled up her esophagus at the use of one of her old fake IDs and took a fortifying breath.

“I understand you are the person to come to if something needs to be done quietly,” Rey began.

_

_November 2_

_Rey tried. She really tried to keep the stars out of her eyes, to not stare at Ben’s handsome face, to think of him as only her boss. Yeah right. He was amazing! He was kind, smart, attentive, gentle, understanding. She could keep that list running, but it didn’t end with him being mentally and emotionally attractive to her. She was most certainly physically attracted as well. Between his stupidly gorgeous eyes, unfairly attractive looks, and boyish smile, her goose was well and truly cooked. To make matters worse, his voice was the best thing she had ever heard._

_“What do you think of that idea?” she heard Ben ask._

_“I’m sorry. I spaced out for a second there. Say again,” she replied contritely. She needed to get a hold of herself. Maybe having lunch with him every day wasn’t the best idea._

_Ben set aside his lunch and gave her his full attention. “You haven’t been behaving quite yourself today. Are you feeling all right?” His voice betrayed his genuine concern._

_What a loaded question! Was she feeling okay? Physically, yes. In that arena, she hadn’t felt so good in a long time. Mentally and emotionally, she was raw. Lately, she had been trying more and more to figure out if Ben was who she thought he was, but he was a tough nut to crack. If she couldn’t get something out of him soon, she would have to hire a private investigator. She was thinking for a little while that she wouldn’t have to go to such desperate means, but she was at most a week away from having to do just that._

_Unbidden, a tear slipped down her cheek. She furiously wiped it away, and unconsciously started rubbing at her scar. His eyes tracked the movements, and he let out a deep pained sigh._

_“Soulmate issues?” he asked quietly. She even thought that she heard his voice crack. After she nodded her affirmative, he leaned forward and rubbed his hands down his face. It wasn’t hard to notice the pain in his eyes._

_“I had a soulmate,” he started. Rey felt her pulse jump. Maybe he would say what she needed to hear and she could tell him what she knew. Maybe by the time she went home… WAIT! Did he say_ had _? Past tense? The tears gathered in earnest now. So this was it. She was about to find out she was wrong all along, and her heart would be broken in the process._

_“She was honestly the best thing to ever happen in my life, but I lost her on February 14, 2010. January 28 and Valentine’s Day are the worst days of the year now. So don’t feel like you have to hide any emotions regarding soulmate issues around me. I get it.” With that said, he excused himself to the bathroom._

_Rey sat on the couch in mute shock when he left. He just named the two days that would have been a huge deal for her and Kylo – her birthday and the day that her life was upended. He practically just shouted at her who he was. Ben was Kylo! Her elation turned to sorrow as she began to understand what else he had said - he believes she died._

_When he returned, his eyes were puffy and red from crying. Rey felt her heart shatter as she watched her soulmate grieve over what he believed was her death. Oh, how she wished to comfort him, but she didn’t know how to approach him now. Or how to tell him._

_The rest of the day was spent stewing over the correct course of action. Would he even believe her if she told him? After all, she hadn’t been completely honest about everything. She couldn’t be, and that made this infinitely worse._

_When she finally returned home that night, she excused herself to her room where she finally let loose the tears she had been holding at bay since lunch. They all came to shuddering, choking stop when she remembered that she was running out of time. What if she was found before she got to tell him? She may not get another chance, but he also might not believe her._

_Sniffing, she pulled out her notebook and started writing:_

**_Dear Ben (Kylo),_ **

****

**_Please don’t be angry with me. Being separated from you was the last thing I wanted. Hopefully, you never have to read this; but if you are, that means I am hopefully only back with the marshals and in goodness knows what new location. I have so much I want to tell you, but I should probably start with what happened on Valentine’s Day when we were supposed to meet…_ **

-

Ben glanced up when Rey plodded into the office a little later than usual. She had informed him yesterday that she would be late coming in this morning. He was told that it was because she had an appointment that could not be rescheduled. Based on her heavy countenance, it was not a good appointment.

“You okay, Rey? You look like you don’t feel good,” he told her as he stood up and walked over to stand in front of her desk.

She cast troubled eyes up at him and promptly burst into tears. Taking long strides, he hurried around to her side of the desk and gathered her in a hug that she melted into. This was not the Rey he was used to. That Rey was like a burst of sunshine in this unusually morose office. He was used to her smiling, shoving his shoulder when he said something ridiculous, twirling her hair around her fingers absent-mindedly, humming when she was especially happy about what she had accomplished. She was a hard worker and gentle force to be reckoned with. She was strong, stubborn, steadfast. In a matter of just a few months, she had become an anchor for him. Seeing her like this brought out a side of him that hadn’t existed since Kira. The side that included the overwhelming urge to comfort; protect; and, dare he say, love.

Ben held her and rubbed her back through the whole emotional breakdown. He whispered soothing words and swayed gently with her. When the hiccupping sobs subsided, she stepped away from him and found a tissue to clean up her face with leaving an uneasy feeling in her wake.

Now that the air was full of awkwardness, Ben rubbed the back of his neck as he walked back over to his desk and sat down. He started to work when he noticed that she was standing next to him.

“Thank you,” she mumbled. “It’s just been a difficult morning.”

Her trembling lip and shuddering breaths caused his own chest to ache. Reaching out, he grabbed her hand and squeezed it.

“Anytime,” he consoled.

The small smile she gave him warmed his heart. It looked like she was about to say something when her eyes trailed to his desk and her smile faltered slightly. Following her gaze, he realized that he had out the Bala Tik file, and his safe was sitting slightly open. The numbers had not added up right again, and the location had changed for the third time in the last two months. The client had not changed location so much in the past. Once again, it was getting closer to Chandrilla. Ben had spent the morning poring over the paperwork and had simply forgotten to put it away before she came in.

“Just one of Snoke’s personal accounts,” he supplied. “They haven’t been in for a meeting in a long time, and their account has some issues. I have been working on it this morning.”

“Oh,” she breathed. “Do you need help with it?”

Ben noticed the slight tremble in her voice, the hesitancy in her actions. It was odd and nothing like her at all.

“No. No, I have this one. Are you sure you are all right?” he asked her again. Much to Ben’s surprise, she became aggressive.

“I’m fine,” she snapped. Quickly, she twisted her head away from him, pinched the bridge of her nose, and planted one hand on a hip. She took in a deep breath before continuing more calmly despite the tears gathering in her eyes again. “Yes. I’m sorry. I’m fine. Just tired and dealing with some difficult decisions.”

That was when Ben’s heart hit his feet. Words from months ago when he first hired her came rushing back. She started working for him at the very end of August, and she had said that she would only be in Chandrilla for at most six months. They were well into her fifth month. She was probably figuring out her next step. Ben was about to lose someone else who was precious to him.

Heartbrokenly, he told her to let him know if she needed anything. When they were both settled at their respective desks, Ben found it hard to focus on work again. At first, he only thought she was like Kira; but then as he got to know her, he found the similarities shocking. Her employee file, though, said there was no chance that she was Kira. If her birthday had been on January 28, Ben would have dug a little deeper; maybe he would have allowed himself to hope. But, no, her birthday was on February 15.

Now, Ben found himself falling in love with her. She never mentioned a soulmate before that day in November which led him to believe that she didn’t have one. But then she had to go and confirm that she did, in fact, have a soulmate. It appeared that she loved him deeply too. That had been like a knife to the chest and was the very thing that stopped him from hoping anymore.

This, though? Her actually leaving? This was like Valentine’s Day all over again. The emotions were splitting him apart. After just five minutes, he excused himself to lunch. She looked like she was about to say something to him, but he managed to cut her off as he hurried out of his office to eat lunch alone for the first time since she started working for him. He needed to be alone right now.

_

So close. She was so close to saying it. To telling him the truth. But he had done everything but stand still and listen. Then he had just walked out and left her standing there clueless as what to do. Now she was alone for lunch for the first time since she started working with him.

Blinking back more tears, Rey did the very thing she had decided not to do when Finn mentioned the safe – she snooped. The safe had been on her mind, but she had not consciously looked for it. She wouldn’t have looked into it now had it not been for the name on the file he had put in the safe: Bala Tik. It sounded familiar; though she couldn’t remember why.

Sitting in his chair, Rey pulled out the drawer she had seen the small safe in to find it sitting there locked tight. It was a finger print lock so wasn’t going to be able to get in it anytime quick. If she had an extra ten minutes, she might consider it. Closing the drawer, she turned her attention to the desktop where the offending file lay. Flipping it open, she quickly thumbed through the papers. There was information missing, and what was there was jarringly sketchy.

_What is Ben up to?_ she wondered. _Am I not the only one omitting truths?_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So Rey has it figured out. I promise she has very good reasons for struggling to spill the beans. 
> 
> Just wanted to say thank you for the support on this story so far! Y'all are the best!


	12. Seen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all might have questions after this one. Also, the next couple chapters are going to be intense. Like, Rey is going to have a panic attack in this one. So heads up warning there.

“Poe, I borderline wish you hadn’t introduced me to Rey,” Ben lamented as he lay in his apartment sprawled out across his couch with his face buried in a cushion three days after he had left Rey to eat lunch alone. The sounds of choking and spluttering came from the chair next to him. “If you ruin the upholstery, you are paying to have it fixed.”

“I’m sorry, but I thought you said that you wished I hadn’t introduced you to Rey!” Poe exclaimed around coughs. “I seem to recall you were the one that came running into my hanger at the airport A DAY after you met her babbling on about how much you liked your new PA. What happened?”

There were some mumblings into the couch that Poe didn’t understand. “Sorry, brother. I didn’t get that.”

Finally turning to face Poe, Ben tried again. “I said that I care too much about her. What do I do Poe?”

Poe had no idea how he ended up being the guy that was always around whenever Ben had his soulmate/love-life crises, but here he was. Rocking it. He should go out and get a degree in soulmate therapy at this point. But then, he loved his brother. He couldn’t imagine not being there to help.

“Care too much, meaning?” Poe inquired. Ben’s glare told him what he needed to know. “It’s okay to fall in love, Ben. You have denied yourself that very thing for so long now. Surely, Kira wouldn’t have wanted you to stay alone and not love another person for the rest of your life.”

“She has a soulmate,” Ben stated miserably before burying his face back in the cushion.

Poe made a sympathetic noise before reaching across the distance between them and patting Ben on the shoulder.

“I don’t mean this to sound, well, mean; but you have the worst luck when it comes to love,” Poe stated ruefully.

“Tell me about it,” Ben mumbled yet again into the cushion.

“Want me to try setting you up on a date?” Poe asked cautiously. After yet another glare from Ben, Poe relented a little. “I don’t know what to tell you, Ben. I am proud of you for putting yourself out there again. You have so much love to give that it is a shame for you to keep it all tucked away. Honestly. You are a real catch. You sure you don’t want to try one date?”

“I don’t think I can handle it emotionally, Poe,” Ben stated flatly.

“Maybe a dog?” Poe suggested off-handedly.

Ben sat up and chucked a pillow at Poe’s face before going to the kitchen and fishing out the ice cream and chocolate syrup. He even grabbed the can of whipped cream. One of the joys of growing up with a single mother was that Ben learned well the therapeutic value of chocolate especially in the form of ice cream. Now seemed as good a time as any to indulge.

_

“Good morning, Mr. Solo,” Rey greeted him cheerily as he walked into the office the following morning.

“Rey, I have told you to call me Ben,” he huffed as he sat down. At least she appeared to be back to her normal self.

She had followed him into the office and was standing across from him at his desk. It took all he had not to stare at her. She looked beautiful in her green blouse, black pencil skirt, and flat black shoes. Her hair was pulled back in what his mother’s fashion savvy assistant Kaydel would have called a fauxhawk. It almost looked like three buns that were blended together. The style really looked amazing on her.

“Here is your coffee and the files that were brought to the office this morning. You have a meeting with Mr. Snoke in an hour to go over the quarterly budget, a phone conference at 11:30 with the catering company for the upcoming board of directors meeting, and the 2:30 appointment with GDG Sales,” she reminded him.

“Do you have…” he began.

“The requests from the board for what food to get came in an email this morning. I sent it to the printer just before you walked in. I will have that folder ready for you in a little while,” she supplied happily as she beamed at him.

“Always one step ahead of me,” he said gently while returning her smile. After a moment of just staring at one another, Ben snapped himself out of it. “Thank you, Rey. Has Snoke by chance sent anything to you yet about this afternoon’s meeting?”

“No. I will get it to you as soon as he does,” she assured before walking over to the printer behind his desk and gathering the paperwork she had printed.

“While I am in my morning meeting with Snoke, could you please pull out the file on GDG? I have been going over everything, but I still feel like I am missing some important information,” he admitted.

“Sure,” she replied. “Looking for anything specific? Or just all of it?”

Rubbing a hand down his face, Ben suppressed the need to groan. Why were some accounts so difficult? He looked at his watch to gage how much time he had available before answering her.

“Just pull all of it. I will look over as much as I can before 2:30,” he stated tiredly. “And, Rey? You really are my favorite PA.”

Ben wasn’t exactly sure what possessed him to say that, but she looked like she could use an extra confidence boost. Sure, she was sunshiny like normal, but her eyes told him there was a storm going on in her head. Plus, the extra bright smile she gave him coupled with a slight blush put an extra spring in his step when he went to meet with Snoke.

_You gotta get over this, Ben_ , he scolded himself.

-

Most of the morning had been nothing but one meeting right after the other. Rey was only able to help with the caterer’s meeting. All the others, Ben would have to do alone.

They were able, however, to go over the GDG files which were, much to Rey’s increasing surprise, sparse. Information was missing. Even the money flow from FO to this company was all wrong. At one point, she noticed Ben reaching into his desk to pull out the bottle of ibuprofen. This was causing him just as much headache as it was her.

“What are they wanting to meet about today?” Rey mused aloud. “I rather hope it is for the purpose of finishing this paperwork.”

Ben grunted in response but kept his eyes glued to the file in question. He was looking at it like it had offended him deeply, and he was seeking revenge. After a little while, he straightened up in his seat and crossed his arms over his chest. His eyebrows seemed to be locked in a deep scowl.

“They said they needed to renegotiate their loan,” Ben stated like he was working out a problem. “Problem is, we don’t really have any information on the loan here. No interest rates. No signed paperwork. Snoke wants to meet with them privately before I come in to take care of the financial papers. I haven’t even seen whatever this contract is yet.”

“That’s not good. Right?” Rey asked carefully.

“It doesn’t look good. We don’t know what is going on there though. These guys haven’t been in since I took over as CFO. I have seen them around, but this is my first time personally working with them,” Ben sighed unhappily.

Rey watched him attentively the rest of the afternoon until the meeting to make sure he didn’t overdo it. She didn’t want him to tire himself out too much before going into an unknown situation. When he went to the meeting, she met him at the door for the office and reached up to straighten his tie and help him fix his appearance.

“Looks good,” she assured. “Go get them.”

He gave her a small smile and a “thanks” before walking toward Snoke’s office with more confidence than he felt.

It was another hour before he came back. His voice filtering in through the door set butterflies loose in Rey’s stomach. Butterflies that died at the sound of the next voice. It was a voice she had heard only once six years before, but she wasn’t likely to forget. A sudden shake started at the base of her spine and ran through her body followed by the tell-tale burn of adrenaline.

Even though she knew the office well, Rey started hunting the room with her eyes for a place to duck and hide. She could have smacked herself for not scoping out the office as soon as she walked in on that first day. Ben just had her feeling so safe and comfortable that she neglected some of the most basic survival lessons she had been given. Realizing she didn’t have time to fully conceal herself, Rey opted to shrink as low behind her computer as she could and pulled a file up to put in front of her face.

This was not how this was supposed to go! Cassian and Jyn were supposed to be the ones to find her if she was actually found and didn’t just return to Montana on her own!

The office door opened and Ben stepped in. The other person was right at the door with him – in her line of sight.

_Please don’t notice me!_ she pleaded.

“Are feeling quite all right, Mr. Solo? You seem to be out of breath all of the sudden,” Phasma’s voice filtered over the rest.

“Yeah. I’m fine. No idea where that came from,” Ben confirmed.

_I’m sorry, love. That was me!_ Rey exclaimed the only way she could even as she vaguely realizing that he had just felt her emotions. That was something she would think about later.

When she thought the man was gone, she slowly emerged from behind her desk. Ben was standing there giving her a questioning look. What was far behind him at the other end of the hall though made her blood run cold. All her happiness of the last several months melted away as she found herself being watched from a distance by a pair of familiar, cold, dark eyes.

_Oh. It is you. You are_ that _Bala Tik._

-

Ben’s morning had been great. Or as great as it could be working at FO. He had gotten a lot accomplished, taken care of some important meetings, even found some new information to send to Zorii. And it was all made better because Rey was there working with him. But by the time he returned from his meeting with GDG, they were both out of sorts.

It was no trouble at all for Ben to pin down the source of his problem. The man in the meeting was Bala Tik – the very person he had been sending information to Zorii about. And he was actually in Chandrilla now. The real issue here was Rey. In the short time he had been gone, she went from sunshiny spring day type demeanor to an outright blizzard. She had been cold and unapproachable ever since he returned; and she stayed that way the rest of the work day.

Just before it was time for her to clock out for the day, Ben excused himself to the restroom. When he returned, she was standing in front of the windows with her back to him. Her posture screamed sorrow and defeat. Somehow, she had sensed his quiet return.

“You know, all those afternoons after school that I spent down in the park, I never once watched the sunset,” she told him quietly without ever once looking back at him.

Plucking up his courage, Ben strode over to stand next to her. When he looked down at her face, it radiated more pain and sorrow than her posture did. There even appeared to be a little fear mixed in. Her phone was held tightly in her hand. He absently wondered if it was new since he had not seen that one before. How odd that she would go from a smart phone to a flip phone.

“We can go down there together when I get off. For old time’s sake,” he suggested. “My rock and your picnic table are still there.”

She reached up and hugged herself while she continued to stare blankly out the window.

“Actually, do you mind if I sit here in the office with you? Just until the sun goes down?” she asked in a trembling voice.

The hopeful look she gave him was enough to make him decide that he could contact Zorii later in the evening. An extra hour or two wouldn’t matter too much.

“Sure. Let’s do that.”

He clocked out a few minutes later and joined her on the couch. Much to his surprise, she leaned over and laid her head on his shoulder. Looking down at her, he expected to see some emotion on her face, but there was nothing more than blank determination.

They didn’t say a word to each other. Both seemed content to sit and look out the windows at the setting sun. When they parted ways, she just waved to him, got in her car, and left. It didn’t immediately strike him as odd, but later that evening he realized that she had gone a different way than usual to get home.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... that happened. And is only going to get worse from there. I will get you off pins and needles as soon as I can. 
> 
> The picture above is how I pictured Rey's hair for this chapter! It is technically a fauxhawk. Its just not as dramatic as some. Anyway, had to share the inspiration.


	13. The Truth - Part 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Buckle up! This comes in three parts! If there are any mistakes or things that are hard to understand, I am sorry. I will do more editing when my brain isn't so tired.

A loud, shrill ringing broke Ben out of a restless sleep. It had been just a few hours ago that he had said goodbye to Rey, and ever since then, he had felt this gnawing anxiety. He didn’t understand what was going on with her. Why did she go the wrong direction to get to her apartment? Why did she look like the world had stopped turning yesterday afternoon?

The ringing stopped and then started again. Slowly, Ben slid out from under the sheets and put his feet on the floor. Fumbling hands finally landed on his phone.

“Yeah,” he answered in a husky tone.

“Ben,” came Poe’s voice. “Do you know where Rey is?”

A sudden jolt of energy woke him up completely. She didn’t go home?!

“No,” Ben replied tightly. “The last time I saw her, she was leaving work.”

“Well, she didn’t come back to the apartment. She isn’t answering her phone,” Poe told him urgently.

Ben jumped out of bed and started grabbing his clothes and shoes. He knew he must look like a madman, but he frankly didn’t care. Rey didn’t look right at work, didn’t go home the right way, and now she was missing. There was no way he was going to stay calm.

“Hang up, Poe, and keep trying to call her. I will be there in ten minutes,” Ben ordered before hanging up and shoving his hoodie over his head. He knew something was wrong. Maybe his subconscious had been telling him the same thing all along.

Emotions continued to assault his mind while he quickly got dressed. Part way into tying his shoes, Ben came to an abrupt halt. He felt his stomach drop and his head start to throb all while he let the emotions and the implications of them wash over him. It had been a long time, but he was fairly certain that those were not his own emotions. Fat tears rolled down his face as for the first time in a long time he tentatively reached out with both emotions and words.

_Kira?_

There was no verbal response, but he did feel a small undercurrent of emotions he was certain were not his own. All that anxiety he had been feeling melted away and was replaced by sorrow. Ben bowed his head into his hands and cried.

_

As soon as Ben arrived at the apartment, Poe was pulling open the passenger door and flopping in. They spent the next hour doing what felt like aimless driving around the city. Both of them had ideas of where to look: the park, the office, the ice cream shop she had discovered and fell in love with. Finn had opted to stay at the apartment just in case she showed up there while Rose went down to the police station. They were all growing steadily more worried. None more so than Ben.

Emotions continued to flow steadily through what felt like a pin prick sized hole in his mind. It felt like the bulk of all of them were being pent up behind a dam and the pressure was slowly building. His head was throbbing, and his mind was in a whirl. Had he been wrong all along? Was Kira still alive? Was it safe to allow himself to hope? And why now?

“THERE!” Poe screamed next to him.

Ben stomped on the breaks and followed Poe’s pointed finger. Sure enough, her car was sitting in the parking lot of an older hotel. In fact, there were several hotels in the area.

Tires squealed as Ben slammed his foot back down on the gas and recklessly turned into the parking lot. Finding a park right next to her car, he pulled in and popped the car into park. Both men were out of the car in the blink of an eye. The ran around her car checking for any sign of her or what might have happened to her.

“Nothing. Absolutely nothing,” whined Poe after a few minutes of panicked searching.

“You suppose she is staying in this hotel?” Ben asked as he eyed the building in question. “Why would she…”

The thought was cut off by the sudden arrival of two men pointing taser guns right at them. Ben and Poe raised their hands in the air as they looked at each other with large confused eyes. It took him a moment to really take in the new comers, but Ben eventually made out the gun holsters strapped around their shoulders, the badges shining on their belts, and the jackets that were barely covering any of it. Across the jackets were emblazoned in bright yellow the words _U. S. Marshal_.

“State your name and purpose,” one of them barked.

“I’m Ben Solo and this is Poe Dameron,” Ben immediately complied. “We are looking for a friend. She was supposed to come home earlier this evening, but she didn’t. This is her car.”

The officers looked at the car Ben indicated. After a tense moment, the other man spoke into a mouth piece attached somewhere to his right sleeve.

“We have Solo and Dameron. Bringing them in,” he stated.

Poe immediately started spluttering. “Wait! What did we do?! Are we under arrest?”

The taller marshal dragged a hand heavily down his face and beard. He leveled Poe with an impassive look as he walked over to him and placed cuffs on his wrists.

Ben watched the whole thing helplessly. He was so lost and confused. Kira might be alive, but Rey was missing, and now he couldn’t do a thing about either situation. As lost in thought and heartache as he was, he didn’t even have the strength or energy to resist. He just let himself be cuffed and then led into the hotel across the street. The ride in the elevator up to the third floor all went by in a flash. He didn’t even notice Poe’s words of protest.

On the third floor, the two men guided Poe and Ben to a room at the end of the hall. They pushed the door open and gestured for them to enter. The sight before him caused Ben’s jaw to drop and Poe’s to shut.

The adjoining suites had been converted into a station for some kind of investigation. There were more marshals and a couple police officers. Every available flat surface had computers, phones, printers, and other devices that Ben could not identify. Not a single person in the room was sitting still, but one loud voice could be heard over the others.

“Mr. Solo!” came the concerned sound of a female voice. “Whatever are you doing here? You better not be trying to follow a lead on the case.”

Looking up, Ben saw Detective Zorii Bliss standing in front of them with her arms crossed. She faltered a little and a scowl appeared on her face as her eyes landed on Poe. The look she cut Poe’s way could have caused frostbite. Whether it did or not, he was shivering; although Ben was pretty sure that was from shock. Ignoring Zorii from a distance is possible, but up close? Well, it can’t be done. She had probably already shouted at him through their bond. Poe suddenly seemed to realized something.

“Ben! You knew? What… how… why…” Poe spluttered irritably.

“Poe, now is hardly the time,” Ben responded equally irate.

“Both of you need to chill,” Zorii stated flatly. “But to answer your question, you now know I am a detective and you think I wouldn’t put what little you have told me about yourself to work? You are crazy. I tracked you down years ago.”

A look crossed Poe’s face that Ben knew would get him in trouble.

“Oh?” Poe asked in a tone that was bordering on flirtatious. He added in a wink just to up the charm factor. “Curious were you? Like what you learned?”

“Obnoxious fly boy who is a notorious flirt and thinks he is above the rules?” she asked uninterestedly while leveling him another slightly colder stare. Poe looked like he had seen stars. It wasn’t everyday that someone called him out on anything or wasn’t swayed by his flirtatious behavior.

Zorii walked away and tossed a “Follow me to do something about those cuffs” over her shoulder.

Poe leaned over to Ben and whispered in awe, “I think I am in love.”

Ben didn’t say a thing. Instead, he gave him a look that said “I told you so” before trailing Zorii into the adjoining room where there were only four agents – the two that had brought them to the hotel, a Hispanic man that was probably in his late forties, and a brunette woman in her early forties. The larger of the two agents that brought Poe and Ben in walked back over to them with a set of keys that he used to unlock their cuffs.

“Sorry about that,” he spoke gruffly. “Had to keep up appearances. You are not under arrest. Name’s Baze Malbus.”

He thrust out his hand for both Ben and Poe to shake in greeting once the cuffs were off. The other man came over and introduced himself as Chirrut Imwe. Interestingly enough, he was completely blind. He had somehow managed to become an agent with a reputation, though, since Zorii quickly and quietly noted that he was not someone to be crossed.

Even though Poe was enjoying being around his soulmate; eventually, Ben lost his patience.

“Do you know where Rey is?” he demanded.

What Ben said seemed to cause Zorii to jump. She made a hasty exit to the other room. The Hispanic man and the brunette woman stopped what they were working on and walked over to him. When they stood before Ben, they both took a protective stance. The woman spoke first.

“My name is Jyn Erso-Andor. This is my husband and partner Cassian Andor. Just so you know, if it weren’t for the fact that Rey gave us your names and told us that we could trust you, we would not be allowing you this close to the investigation,” she said in a tone that was meant to tell him to drop it. Ben was never great at following instructions.

“I just want to know where she is!” Ben insisted heatedly. “Is she okay? Can we see her?”

“She is fine,” Cassian supplied a little more patiently than his wife. “She is safe. All you need to know is that she is a witness, and we are her guardians. As such, you must wait until we say that you can see her. In the meantime, make yourself comfortable. It could be along night.”

Past their shoulders Ben saw security feeds from both the hotel they were currently in, and the one across the street where Rey’s car was parked. Footage was being shown from inside and outside. They were watching for something. Or someone.

Ben turned away from the screens and the agent and sat down on the edge of a nearby bed too distressed to really pay attention to his surroundings. He was still being overwhelmed occasionally by random emotions that he was certain were not his own. Right at that moment, Zorii came back in the room.

“Mr. Solo,” Zorii called to him. When she had his attention, she extended to him a large manila envelope with his name scrawled on the front in Rey’s handwriting. “She came to my office a couple weeks ago and hired me to keep this safe and give it to you should something happen to her before she came back to my office. She seemed to think that was something I could do. It appears to me that this counts as the right moment.”

Ben took the proffered envelope with shaking hands. Nervously, he opened it and slid out the small stack of papers. At the front was what appeared to be an application for First Order. Thinking it was for a replacement PA, he almost shoved it all back in the envelope until the name and date of birth caught his attention.

**Reyla Knight**

**January 28, 1992**

Sliding further up the bed with the papers held tightly in his hands, Ben started scanning through each page. The further he went the more he realized that this was a real application and the one Rey had given him months ago had been filled with things from a fake ID.

When he flipped the last page of the application, he found a letter from Rey. The first three words caused his heart to stop for just a moment before it started again at a rapid pace. A lone tear escaped his eyes and rolled down his face as he started to read.

_Dear Ben (Kylo),_

_Please don’t be angry with me. Being separated from you was the last thing I wanted. Hopefully, you never have to read this; but if you are, that means I am hopefully only back with the marshals and in goodness knows what new location. I have so much I want to tell you, but I should probably start with what happened on Valentine’s Day when we were supposed to meet…_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... the truth is coming out. Slowly. I would like to warn you now that the next chapter is going to be tough. I have it written and will likely post it tomorrow night or Saturday morning. It comes with a TW that may also lead to a bump in the rating. Haven't decided yet. It isn't graphic or anything, but the content is still tough. The whole chapter is a flashback.
> 
> Side note - The name Reyla means "child of the sunshine." Thought it was fitting for her! Generally, it is spelled with an "a" instead of an "e;" but for the sake of the story, I changed it a little.


	14. The Truth - Part 2 (Rey's Story)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I think this is okay kept at a Teen rating. The violence is not graphic at all. More emotional than anything and short lived. It will not leave Star Wars level violence (thinking specifically about the Hutts in Episode 6). However, it is the cause of the violence that still has me a little nervous. If you think I should bump this to mature, please feel free to say so. I appreciate any feedback.
> 
> TW: Physical violence and references (both direct and indirect) to human trafficking

_February 13, 2010_

“Don’t forget, girl, I have places to go tomorrow night. You need to be here to take care of this kid,” Plutt bellowed as he kicked little Temiri’s bookbag away from where it sat on the floor next to the boy.

Rey stopped right in the middle of folding the laundry and spun to stare hard at her foster father. He was a disgusting, fat middle age man. His outfit always consisted of a beat-up pair of jeans, a shirt so stained by food and oil that it never looked clean, and a pair of holy socks. The smells that surrounded him were reminiscent of rotten fish.

“I can’t tomorrow night!” Rey exclaimed loudly. “I am supposed to meet my soulmate!”

As soon as the words exited her mouth, she knew she had made a mistake. There was a reason she had never mentioned Kylo to Plutt. She didn’t want Plutt to ever do anything that might keep them away from each other. He was always trying to control Rey’s every move, watch her every step, manipulate her life. The look he was giving her now said that he was one step away from ruining Valentine’s.

Instead of saying anything, he just stomped to his room and slammed the door. All while she and Temiri were working on their homework, she could hear him having an intense conversation with someone over the phone. His voice was never loud enough to understand, but she got that he was not in a pleasant mood.

They heard him hang up the phone before he came thundering out of his room and out of the house. The double wide trailer they lived in shook with the force with which he slammed the door on his way out. Moments later, his car started and could be heard peeling away down the street.

Rey breathed a small sigh of relief that he was gone. There would be a little peace and a lot less stress for several hours. Now all she had to do was find something for herself to eat as well as her sweet six-year-old foster brother. Over the last two years that he had lived with her and Plutt, the little boy had grown quite attached to Rey. If she was being honest, the feeling was mutual; though she might like him more if she wasn’t forced to be the parent in this situation.

Standing from the kitchen table, Rey walked around to the other side of the table where she him with some of his homework before going into the kitchen. Scanning the cabinets, Rey found a can of Spaghetti-O’s and a few slices of bread. She decided that it would have to do. The can was emptied into a bowl to heat it, and the bread was buttered, seasoned with garlic, and toasted. Deciding that since she was going to be getting a large meal tomorrow, Rey gave Temiri a larger portion than she had.

Once dinner was cleaned up, she sent him to take his bath and get ready for bed. After he was tucked in, she grabbed her blankets and made up her usual bed on the couch.

_Good night, Kylo._

_Good night, sweetheart. I can’t wait to see you tomorrow!_ came his immediate and enthusiastic response.

Rey fell asleep easily that night and dreamed of meeting her soulmate the next day.

Her sweet dreams were mildly interrupted when she thought she felt something prick her skin. Rey sat up and surveyed the room only to find it empty. Shrugging it off as a bad spring that was in the horrid old couch, she lay back down and felt an immediate and unusually strong pull back to sleep.

When she woke up, it was to the sounds of her soulmate calling out to her. Everything was hazy at first, and she was about to respond to him when she felt a bump. Her eyes flew open only to be met with the sight of what appeared to be the trunk of a car. She tried to move only to find to her horror her hands were restrained. Panic took over.

Rey was only vaguely aware of her soulmate trying to speak to her. To comfort her. It wasn’t getting through.

The car came to a stop just moments later and she heard the steady rise and fall of voices. Had it not been for the panic attack she was in the throes of, she might have actually said something to her soulmate. Sought out his help, but the sounds of people coming around to the back of the car drove her further into her panic.

The trunk was suddenly opened and she was roughly dragged out. She thrashed and fought the best she could against her captors. The air around her was hot and dry just like the ground she could see below her struggling feet. Lifting her eyes, she realized she was in the middle of a desert region with nothing but sand as far as the eye could see. Sand and something shiny moving in the distance. She then heard a voice she recognized.

“Will she suffice to pay off my debt?” Unkar asked in a hurry.

“Yes. She will do,” came a cold voice equally as hurried.

Rey raised her eyes to see her foster father shake hands with another man. His eyes were menacingly dark and hidden beneath thick eyebrows. His face was long and his hair was short and dark.

She didn’t have much time to take in everyone, but she definitely saw them. Within the span of time it took her heart to take one frantic beat, she realized what was happening. She felt her heartrate increase and adrenaline burn through her system. Hot tears coursed down her face as she kicked harder and was able to break free and let loose a scream.

_KYLO!!_

Next things she knew, something had a hold of her hair and was slamming her to the hard ground against what felt like rocks. Pain split through her head and stars danced before her eyes. Before she blacked out though, she heard the tale-tell sound of a siren.

_

_Two weeks later_

Rey felt like she was resurfacing from being underwater too long. Her throat was irritatingly dry, her lips were cracked, and her head was pounding. Slowly, she cracked her eyes open only to be met with the light of a hospital room. As her eyes adjusted and her mind cleared, she realized she was not alone. Across the room from her sat two people in jackets that had U.S. Marshal emblazoned across the back.

The man was a handsome, middle age Hispanic. The woman appeared to be just slightly younger than him, but no less attractive. Her long brown hair was pulled back in a bun, and her brown eyes were twinkling as she spoke with the man. They both looked Rey’s direction at the same time. The woman strode over to Rey and pushed a button to call the nurse.

“Hello, young lady. My name is Jyn Erso-Andor and this is my husband and partner Cassian. What is your name?” she asked.

“Reyla Knight. I prefer Rey though. Where am I?”

Jyn and the Cassian gave each other sympathetic looks before he pulled a chair up for her to sit. Jyn reached out and gently grabbed Rey’s hand that didn’t have an IV in it.

“What do you remember about what happened to you? Do you know why you are in a hospital?” she asked hesitantly.

Rey thought hard. She really did, but nothing came forward in her memory. Rey began shaking her head but immediately had to stop for the pain.

“You were brought in two weeks ago for a massive head injury. You have been unconscious all this time. Do you know your parent’s names? Or your soulmate?”

The harder Rey thought, the more panic she felt. She could remember very little. Tears of frustration started falling freely down her face.

“It’s okay. The doctor said you might struggle to remember things at first. He seemed confident that the only area of your brain that was deeply affected was the part that allows communication with a soulmate. They can’t do anything for that if they don’t know if you even have one since the treatments are so rare and expensive. That is bridge we will cross as your memories come back,” Jyn soothed.

And they did start coming back. Slowly at first, and then almost all at once. Most of the memories Rey could handle; but when the more recent ones started returning, they hit her in painful shock waves. Nothing was more devastating than remembering Kylo.

When the memory of him returned, she spent most of the morning screaming, crying, and pounding at the wall that seemed to now separate their minds. Jyn took her from the safe house she had been staying at since she was discharged from the hospital and drove her to a doctor who specialized in those type injuries. He gave her the worst news: too much time had passed since the injury.

“I’m sorry, Miss Rey, but there is no treatment that could fix this now. If we had caught it earlier, we have a drug that is derived from the same hormone that creates a soulmate’s mark. Since it has been too long, the only thing that can help you now is the hormone itself. It is much stronger and has been proven to fix problems like this many times,” Doctor Kalonia explained.

“You mean, I need to be around my soulmate?” Rey questioned.

“More than that. Being around him would allow the bond to relax a little and open just enough that you could share emotions, but that would be it. No, to actually fix this, you would have to kiss him. It wouldn’t work if you already had your mark, but since you don’t…” Doctor Kalonia trailed off.

Rey looked miserably at Jyn. The older woman wrapped her arms around Rey’s shoulders and gave them a comforting squeeze.

“Does it matter how long it takes for that to happen?” Jyn asked the hard question.

“No. Time shouldn’t affect how that works. It will work better if they are around one another for a little while first, but otherwise, it should work just fine,” Doctor Kalonia concluded.

Jyn hugged Rey to her just a little harder a spoke gently, “There, see. All will be well. Maybe not today, but one day it will be. I promise.”

Two days later, the memory of what had landed her in the hospital surfaced with a round of horrifying nightmares. Cassian and Jyn took on the role of protecting her from her dreams along with protecting her physically. When she was able to pass the information about what had happened along to the two marshals, they immediately pulled her into a completely closed off room (for extra safety, they told her). Once there, they started showing her pictures. The first few were neither here nor there, but the last ones nearly sent her into a panic when she recognized the men who were with Plutt.

“They are called the Guavian Death Gang. They are led by the man you just identified as the man your foster parent was speaking with. His name is Bala Tik. We have been monitoring them for years thinking that they were involved in human trafficking. Now, we have proof. You,” Cassian stated matter-of-factly.

“Unfortunately, after this incident, they have gone underground. They ran when the patrol that was passing found you. We lost them. Rey, this means we need to keep you safe. These men will try to come after you if they think even for a second that you would recognize them and rat them out,” Jyn explained.

“You mean they would try to – to take me?” Rey asked in a small voice.

“No, sweetie. You are too much of a liability to them. They would try to kill you,” Cassian said bluntly.

The tears fell from her eyes in earnest now. “What about Kylo? Can’t I go…”

She was immediately cut off by both Cassian and Jyn. They swept her into a tight hug while they explained to her that her best options were as follows: keep Kylo safe by not bringing him into this, go into witness protection, and stay off radar until the Guavian Death Gang was brought to justice.

“What about Plutt?” Rey questioned.

“Plutt?” Cassian asked confusedly.

“Yeah. He was my foster fath –“ she stumbled over the word not wanting to apply the term to a man who would try to sell her. “He was the one who –“

“Probably one of their little stooges,” Cassian mused. “They have men around the country who work for them. Our theory is that these men will watch until they can take someone with little to no backlash.”

“Did you do anything recently to make him panic? Make him move up any plans? Maybe a reason to think he was running out time?” Jyn asked.

Rey thought for a moment until she remembered that she had told him about meeting Kylo. That would have put someone out there looking for her. That was something Plutt would not have wanted. To answer their question, she nodded her head before falling apart in wrecking sobs in Cassian and Jyn’s arms.

Over the next six years, change became the normal for Rey’s life. She stayed in Jakku, Texas, until after her freshman year of college under the name of Rey Andor. Her marshal guardians became like the parents she never had but always wanted. She made friends, got a good job, went to college. The only thing her life lacked was Kylo – a fact which broke heart anytime soulmates came up at school or among her friends.

When Cassian felt that something about her cover was compromised, he packed them up and moved them to a small town in the middle of nowhere Montana. Population 3,258. Somehow, he even figured out a way to keep her in contact with Finn, but she wished more than anything that it was Kylo she could talk to.

Her head remained achingly quiet. The place he should have been was so empty. She did her best to be okay with the continued separation, and for a little while, she was. The last thing she wanted was to put him in any danger. So she lived her life until one afternoon almost a year ago when she overheard a conversation between the Andors and Snap Wexley, another of the marshals in charge of protecting her.

Rey was passing their office in the ranch house they had been using for nearly five years when she heard them speaking. Normally, she wouldn’t eavesdrop; but this time she did. This time she wished she had stuck with her normal behavior of walking away.

“We have had no new leads. We don’t even know where they are getting the resources to stay this well hidden,” he told Cassian.

“No new leads doesn’t mean anything. That could change in a short amount of time,” Cassian assured.

“You know as well as I do that this case has gone cold. Unless we put her back out there…”

“NO! We are not using her as bait!” Cassian bellowed.

“Then she is stuck in this life for a very long time,” Snap desperately tried to convey.

“I won’t allow that,” Jyn asserted. “She has a soulmate out there. He needs to know something eventually.”

Rey’s heart swelled as she listened to the people she viewed as her parents. They were there for her. They protected her. She fully believed that they loved her as a daughter and did not see her as just their job. Snap’s next words though ended all the warm and fuzzy feelings she had about her “parents.”

“After all this time, he probably thinks she is dead and is better off for it. It would be for his own good if he was already married,” Snap stated like it was a done deal.

Rey’s heart shattered. Kylo married? Not able to be with him anytime in the near future? This case was not close to being over?

She went to bed that night without eating anything or speaking to anyone. She just lay there and stared at her ceiling. During her restless night, she decided that she was tired of this and that she would find Kylo herself even if it killed her. She had learned enough from Cassian and Jyn that she felt confident that she could make herself vanish. The only issue would be that making herself disappear from the U.S. Marshals was going to be no easy task. It wouldn’t last long. Six months at most if she was lucky and only that long because she learned from the best. This would take careful planning, but it would be worth it to just see him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well... there you have it. Next chapter will be up by no later than Tuesday. Anything else that needs to be answered will be answered in the next chapter.


	15. The Truth - Part 3 (Response)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt awful leaving you guys with that last chapter. Here is the next one just a little earlier than I planned. So this chapter did not go like I thought it would. At. All. I tried adding more but there was such a natural cutoff point that I felt like adding anything else would feel forced. Be prepared with the tissues. You know after the information of the last chapter that this chapter will include an emotional response. But! The end should make you smile!

_…So there you have it. Now you know what happened. I know this hurt you, and I am so sorry. A few weeks ago I realized that there was a possibility that I would cause you further pain by coming back and telling you who I was. Worse, if you were caught with me, it could be what literally kills you. That knowledge alone has kept me quiet. I wrote this letter as a just in case measure. You deserve to know the truth._

_Always yours,_

_Reyla Knight (Kira)_

It was honestly a wonder how Ben made it through any of that letter. As soon as he saw the name _Kylo_ , he started losing control. Throughout the time he was reading, he vacillated between sorrow, anger, and pride. Sorrow over what his precious soulmate had been made to endure. Anger over the time that had been stolen from them and at those who stole it. Pride over how strong she had been.

Ben found he was not able to be angry with Rey. She did the best she could considering the circumstances and maybe even better than him had their places been switched. Actually, he is certain he wouldn’t have been as strong as she was. Right now, Ben wanted nothing more than to know where she was, go there, and fix the issue that was blocking their minds.

When he finally laid all the papers down beside him on the bed, he noticed that Cassian was standing next to him holding out a tissue and staring directly at the papers he had just placed on the bed. Cassian stacked them up neatly and set them aside so that he could sit next to Ben. When he was settled next time him, Cassian reached out and patted Ben’s knee comfortingly.

Ben was just sitting there staring at the tissue not understanding its presence until a tear drop slid into the crack of his lips. That was when the dam broke and Ben sobbed harder than he had in a long time. Cassian was there to catch him followed up by a very confused Poe.

The sound of shuttered breaths and heavy sobs lasted a long while. When they finally ebbed away, Cassian stepped away and began talking to Jyn in hushed whispers. Just before exhaustion claimed him, Ben heard them saying something about Rey and someone named Rook.

When he woke back up, the sun was just barely beginning to paint lighter colors in the sky. Most of the agents and police officers had left the hotel room at some point. Even Poe and Zorii were gone. He was alone with Cassian and Jyn.

“You needed the rest,” Cassian spoke definitively when he saw Ben sit up and cast questioning eyes around the room. “We figured you needed it bad when you kept right on sleeping through the excitement of a couple arrests. You will be pleased to know that one of them was Bala Tik.”

“Guess they thought that Rey was not protected,” Jyn shrugged in a way that said that they had thought wrong.

Ben shook his head and his eyebrows knit together as he absorbed the information they had given him. When he did finally comprehend everything, the questions came pouring fourth like the tears had only hours before.

“How long have you been here? How did you find her? What happened to Plutt? Is he still out there? Is she safe now? When can…”

Cassian stopped him with a firm but gentle look and then proceeded to answer his questions.

“We arrived late last evening after Rey used her burn phone to call us. She told us what she had done, where she was, and that Bala Tik had found her. We got here and immediately connected with the local law enforcement – which I am coming back to shortly,” Cassian said pointedly.

“As for Plutt,” Jyn piped up, “his body was found a couple years ago. Apparently, he got behind on paying his debts back to the wrong people and it cost him big.”

“To answer your big question though,” Cassian continued, “No. She is not safe yet. We got a few of these guys. There are a few more to go including your boss.”

“My boss?” Ben asked.

“Oh yeah,” Cassian replied. “He is apparently the wallet for a few illegal entities. The Guavian Death Gang is just one of many. Once we have everyone – which shouldn’t take long now – she will need to stay in protective custody until the trial is over – that can take some time. Which brings me to you.”

“Me?” Ben asked confusedly.

“Yes, Mr. Solo. You,” Jyn responded for her husband. “You are every bit a witness in this as Rey is. You are the reason we now know who has been funding men like Bala Tik. The paperwork you have been giving Detective Bliss for the last four years perfectly shows us where and how they have been hiding. They dealt in cash only. Much harder to track. It would be wired to the Canto Bight Casino where they would pick it up. Plutt continued to receive money that way even after he died, but all of it actually went to Bala Tik and his associates.”

“That is the short version, but you get the idea,” Cassian stated.

Ben ran a heavy hand down his face as he continued to try to absorb what they were saying. What he eventually came to was the he had been unwittingly ratting out the people who had taken his soulmate from him. He was suddenly very proud of what he had been doing the last four years and couldn’t be more ready to help pull the proverbial plug on First Order’s life support. It was long past time.

“What do you need from me?” he asked resolutely.

“A signed statement. A couple interviews. You pretty well gave us everything else,” Cassian happily replied. “Probably gonna have to put you in witness protection too.”

“I think you had one more question, Mr. Solo,” Jyn reminded him with a knowing smile. To Ben’s eyes, she looked like she had flipped a switch and was no longer a federal agent.

Ben didn’t hesitate to ask. “Where is Rey and when can I see her?”

The two marshals looked at each other and smiled. They stood up together, clasped hands, and motioned for Ben to follow. He trailed behind them as they left the room and went to the elevator thinking to himself that they looked more like two parents all of the sudden as opposed to two U.S. Marshals.

Instead of pushing a button for the ground floor like he assumed they would, they pushed the button for the twelfth floor taking them further up. When the door opened, he was greeted by the sight and sound of an almost completely empty hallway. It was clear that no one else was on this floor except for themselves and a few other visible marshals who were standing outside the door to one of the suites.

Cassian stepped up to them and showed them his badge. They spoke quietly for a minute until Ben was waved forward and the key card for the room was placed in his hand by one of the guards that he distantly realized was wearing a badge that declared his name to be Bodhi Rook. They nodded at him and he slid the card in and watched the lock turn green.

_

It had been a very long day, and Rey just wanted to sleep. The hour that she had spent curled up next to Ben in his office was the most glorious and restful moment of her life – a moment she was sure she wouldn’t be able to have again for a long while.

It had been so easy to call Cassian. It was either call him and have someone there to deal with her would-be-killers, or let those men find her and kill her. That would have also put others in their line of fire depending on where she was. She was not amenable to that idea. So she made the call that would separate her from her heart’s desire. She had gone for six years without ever meeting Ben in person; Rey figured that she could make one moment stretch in her memory to hold her over a little while longer.

Of course, Zorii had the envelope. Eventually, Rey knew that Ben would have the truth. He deserved it. She was only sorry that this would end with him being hurt again, and it was all her fault. Because she couldn’t be patient a little while longer to meet him. Wait until she could stay.

Setting loose a frustrated growl that came out more like a sob, Rey rolled over on her hotel bed and got up. Achingly, she paced around her room as she waited on news of Bala Tik. Nothing in her wanted to think of what would happen if he wasn’t arrested tonight.

Across the suite in the kitchen, she saw her guard for the night, Bodhi Rook, take an incoming call. He spoke in such hushed tones that there was no way she would hear him from where she was walking tracks into the carpet of her room. She was able to take in his body language though. Whatever he was being told had him a little emotional.

A few hours and many pacing sessions later, Bodhi got the call that Bala Tik and two of his associates were in custody. When he told Rey, she nearly wept in relief. Her tears quickly melted into cries of pain when she realized that she would soon be leaving Chandrilla and Ben. In that moment, she had never felt so alone.

She curled up on the bed and managed to get a couple hours of fitful sleep. When the sun slowly started rising, she climbed out bed, pulled a fluffy blanket around her shoulders, and sat in a chair to watch the sunrise through tear coated eyes. The click of the lock to her room was the only notice she received telling her that she was soon not going to be alone anymore.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really tried to get them together by the end of this chapter, but it felt forced. This was the natural cutoff point. Sorry y'all. The next chapter will be up by Tuesday night, and I think you can guess what is coming!


	16. Together

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The moment we have all been waiting on! Enjoy!

Rey heard the door to her room unlock and swing open silently. Light from the hallway spilled into the mostly dark area, but she remained focused on the window stubbornly refusing to face the agent she assumed had come to escort her to wherever Cassian had directed. After the door shut, whoever had entered the room was just stood there silently. She could feel his presence in the room around her and hear his slightly uneven breathing. When a minute of tense silence had finally passed, she felt herself give into the inevitable.

A soft sob caught in her throat as she spoke. “When do we leave?”

“Not sure,” came the reply from an unexpected voice. “Cassian hasn’t said yet.”

Rey jumped up out of the chair and whirled around to stare at Ben. Even in the barely there early morning sunlight, she could see that he looked wrecked.

“Ben,” she breathed.

“Hello, Kira,” he replied softly.

Once he said the name he had given her years ago, Rey couldn’t stop the tears. She curled in on herself and let the tears out. Ben was honestly the last person she expected to come walking through the door of her hotel room. To her great surprise, she was suddenly lifted into strong arms and cradled to his chest. He sat in the chair she had been in and settled her in his lap with his arms locked around her. She didn’t even try to restrain the tears that soaked the front of his hoodie.

“Let it out, sweetheart. It’s been a long, hard six years,” Ben consoled as he started crying with her.

They stayed together wrapped up in each other’s arms for a long while. Rey felt his hand slowly slide up the back of neck to begin gently massaging at the place where her scar was. Normally, she would have batted away the hand of anyone who dared to touch it, but this was Ben – her Kylo. She melted into the touch. They fell asleep with her arms around his neck, one of his arms around her back and the other still running over the evidence of their separation.

_

Ben woke up first after being asleep for barely twenty minutes. Just the sight of her snuggled against his chest and sleeping so peacefully brought a warmth to his chest. He gently brushed the hair out of her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead. Her eyes fluttered open and sleepily took him in.

“Go back to sleep if you need to, sweetheart. You look exhausted,” he whispered. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“Don’t wanna go to sleep. My Kylo might be gone when I wake up. He has been gone so long,” she lamented and pressed her face deeper into his chest.

There were no words for how that made Ben feel. He could feel her pain mingling with his own, and when she snuggled closer to him seeking comfort, he willingly gave it.

“It’s okay,” he murmured into her hair. “I’m not going anywhere. I plan to be with you for the rest of our lives.”

Rey finally looked up at him. Tears were still glimmering in her beautiful hazel eyes.

Now that she seemed fully cognizant of her surroundings, Ben allowed the one bit of curiosity that he had managed to mostly ignore since he finished the letter to grow in his mind again. He honestly can’t be blamed for thinking about it either. Rey looked so beautiful snuggled in his arms with the early morning sunlight dancing across her features.

“Hey, Rey,” Ben started.

“Yeah, Ben?”

“I kinda want to try – I mean if you don’t mind – it’s way past Valentine’s Day 2010…” he bumbled through trying to give a voice to the idea forming in his head all the while glancing furtively at her lips.

“Ben,” Rey pleaded as she glanced down to his lips. “Shut up and kiss me. Like you said, it has been six–“

The rest of her words were muffled by his lips. The kiss was gentle and loving, and his lips were soft against hers. She could feel him giving her everything. Rey’s arms slipped up and around his neck of their own free will, and she poured everything she had into the act of returning his kiss.

Between health class and a few talks with Jyn, Rey knew good and well what to expect from her first kiss with her soulmate, but that didn’t make it any less surprising when a burn started just below her skin and traveled up her body until it settled in just behind her ear near where her scar was. It didn’t hurt. Oddly enough, the burn was comforting. Without a single thought, she brought her hand around to exact spot behind Ben’s ear and gently caressed it. His arms tightened a little more in response.

More surprising than the feeling of her mark being made was the sudden sound of a voice in her head. A voice she hadn’t been privy to in that way in six years.

_I love you,_ the voice chanted over and over.

Without a second’s hesitation, she responded with an enthusiastic, _I love you too!_

Ben suddenly pulled away with sharp intake of air and stared at her in shock. His expression quickly melted into one of awe as he looked at her like she held all the secrets to the universe. The smile he gave her was the kind of smile she had longed to see from him since she first laid eyes on him in the park. It was a brilliant and dazzling thing to behold. This was definitely a time that she was glad she was sitting because her knees definitely would have given out if she wasn’t.

“In case no one has ever told you, Ben,” she said breathily, “you are handsome all the time, but when you smile, it’s even better.”

With that said, she leaned in and kissed him again. Pressing her lips firmly to his, she gave in to all her pent-up emotions from the last six years and put it all into that one passionate kiss while enjoying the feeling of his arms wrapped tightly around her.

_Hey, Rey,_ he silently asked.

_Yes, love?_

She felt him smile against her lips while he responded. _As much as I do love this, I am curious about something._

The laugh that fell from her lips abruptly ended their second kiss.

“Yeah, I am curious about the same thing,” she replied aloud.

Without preamble she pushed his head and hair to the side so she could get a good look behind his left ear. Sure enough, there it was. A perfectly formed mark in the shape of a butterfly.

“What does it look like?” Ben chuckled at her eagerness.

Instead of answering, she smiled up at him and turned her head to expose the side where her injury was. She felt his tentative fingers rake through her hair and pull it to the side. Ben was close enough that she could feel his breath ghosting across her neck just before she felt his lips press against her scar. A moment later, the sensation was followed by something wet and the sounds of soft crying.

Not wanting to break the contact but wanting to comfort him more, Rey turned in his arms and brought his head over to her shoulder. This was not the deep sobs of earlier, but the tears of someone in pain for someone else.

“I’m so sorry you had to go through that all alone, sweetheart,” he cried.

“I’m okay now, love. Cassian and Jyn took care of me. They weren’t who I wanted to be there, but they helped,” Rey consoled. She slowly raked her hand through his hair and massaged his scalp to help calm him.

They were allowed only a few more minutes of quiet before Cassian and Jyn came in. They observed the young couple still snuggled together and nearly split their own faces wide open in a smile when Rey showed them her mark. Cassian’s face quickly became serious again though.

“Hate to break up a happy moment with harsh reality, but we do have to leave here eventually, kids,” Cassian observed.

Ben felt Rey tense up in his arms, and he caught wind of the cause.

_I am NOT leaving you, sweetheart. We will figure it out,_ he told her conclusively. There was no room to argue with him when he used that tone.

“What do I need to do to be able to stay with her?” Ben asked.

“We would need to figure out a location where we can protect both of you,” Jyn replied.

“Do you have anything in mind?” Rey enquired. Ben could still feel the nervous energy coming off her in waves.

“Not currently. It is something we are actively working on. You have to understand that this is a new development and will take us a little more than a couple hours to work out. Just to prepare you for what might happen, there is a chance, however remote, that you could be separated for a little bit. A few days at most while we work out the logistics. We have a place for you right now, Rey, but not for Ben. We still have to get all the paperwork sorted for him. Unless something perfect pops up rather quickly, we will keep him at headquarters and you at the safe house until we work it out,” Cassian stated remorsefully.

“Rey,” Jyn interjected, “the marshals want us to ensure the two of you are safe. That’s our instructions though decidedly not our preference.”

That was definitely not what Ben wanted to hear. He quickly used their bond to let Rey know he needed to get up. She moved away from his lap to allow him to stand up and then curled back up in the seat to watch him pace like a caged lion.

Pacing always seemed to help Ben think clearly, but now with both his thoughts and Rey’s nervous ones all in his head again, he found it hard to focus. There was no way he was going to be separated from her again. For any amount of time. That was final. Suddenly, he remembered something.

“I have an idea,” he said confidently.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this lived up to expectations. I also bumped up the chapter count. A chapter popped up while I was writing this one. Not gonna make any promises here, but the next chapter should be up sometime over the weekend.
> 
> P.S. - I have a theme song for this piece. Have y'all ever heard the song "Come What May" from Moulin Rouge? I thoroughly enjoy listening to Ewan McGregor sing. He has a great voice!


	17. Two Months Later

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Slight different chapter. Rey and Ben don't even make a physical appearance though their presence is still felt. They shall return in the epilogue.

**March 2018**

The last couple months had been both the hardest and most unique of Poe’s life. First, Rey goes missing, and they find her in the midst of some crazy investigation involving the U. S. Marshals of all things. Then Ben gets some weird letter that sends him off the deep end in a way the Poe hasn’t seen happen since Kira. All of that culminated in both Rey and Ben disappearing from the face of the earth without a word.

At least through that he got to meet his soulmate in person. They were kinda on good terms now. Okay. Fine. She tolerated his presence for short spans of time but still occasionally gave him stares that would make Antarctica look like a tropical destination.

The first month after he met Zorii in person, he tried everything that had charmed all the other girls in his life. He started by sending flowers and chocolates to her at work. He found the first bouquet sitting on his porch with the unwrapped chocolates submerged in the water, and the flowers themselves were nothing but stems. Never one to take a hint, Poe tried the same tactic two more times with similar results.

Deciding that maybe he should change tactics, Poe tried sending her an expensive necklace. Thankfully, that was not mangled, but it was returned to him along with a note that said, “I can’t be bought.”

For a whole month, Poe tried his absolute best to romance her with no proof to show that it worked. Zorii seemed to get more irritated with him the more he tried. It was Valentine’s Day that turned it around and allowed for a friendship to begin.

Poe was so used to having Ben around to comfort on Valentine’s Day that he felt useless. Memories of what happened to his brother plagued him from the moment Poe woke up. That day had been just as traumatic for Poe as it had been for Ben.

Somewhere around lunchtime, Poe received a visitor at work. Zorii came strolling into his office wearing her aviator sunglasses, a comfortable looking grey t-shirt, dark wash skinny jeans, a red leather jackets, and a pair of black boots. It didn’t matter to Poe that he was sorta getting what he wanted with Zorii being in his office. It didn’t make much difference that she looked completely beautiful. For the first time since he met her, Poe did not want her to be there.

“You can leave now,” he grumbled.

“Nope,” she said stubbornly. “Not happening. You have been projecting dejected feelings all day. Not your normal behavior at all. I was worried a bit considering what I felt seven years ago today.”

Poe huffed irritably at her when she plopped unceremoniously in the chair across from his desk that overlooked the airfield and propped her feet up. She leveled him a look that all but commanded him to talk. He lasted maybe two minutes before spilling his guts. They ended up an hour later taking Poe’s private jet for a flight. That was how Poe learned that Zorii had her pilot’s license as well. She was sure to be his favorite copilot someday in the far future.

After that day, they had a standing coffee date every Friday morning. They would meet for about thirty minutes before either had to go into work. She would tell him crazy speeding ticket stories, and he would tell her about his latest flights. Poe had never had to work so hard for a friendship in his life, but it was definitely the one that he appreciated the most.

Now here he was two months later on a Thursday evening waiting on Zorii to come to Leia’s house with some kind of important information, and he couldn’t be more thrilled to see her. Sure, they had a rocky start, but Poe felt like they were getting somewhere. Slowly. Painfully slow.

“Poe, could you be a dear and grab that dish from the top shelf for me?” Leia asked pointing at a mixing bowl that just out of her reach.

Leia might be small, but Poe learned early on that size meant nothing. Dynamite also comes in small packages. She was all grace and elegance, but underneath that pristine exterior was an Amazon. Seriously, Wonder Woman only wishes she was as capable and strong as Leia.

Poe reached up and collected the bowl just as the doorbell rang. After setting the dish down on the marble countertop, he walked over to the door to let Zorii in. It should have tipped him off what the conversation was going to be about when she arrived in her uniform, but it didn’t. All he saw was her lovely face and he was ready to flirt.

“Hello, friend,” he greeted a little sweeter than normal.

“Poe,” she sighed patiently. “I sense that you are reaching again. Please be yourself and stop trying to be a charming flirt, Sky Trash.”

Poe beamed at the use of the nickname. It was an odd one, but he felt like it summed up their relationship well, and he knew that she didn’t mean anything cruel by it.

Zorii followed him into the kitchen and greeted Leia with a quick hug. The two women had hit off when they first met a couple days after Ben and Rey went missing.

“Can we go sit in the living room?” Zorii asked in a calm voice. There was nothing foreboding about how she spoke or stood which helped ease any worries that had cropped up over this meeting.

Leia led the way into the living room. She took her normal seat in the cushy recliner, and Poe sat on the brick in front of the fireplace next to her. Zorii sat across from them on the couch. It was then that Poe noticed that she held an envelope protectively in front of her.

“I recently was in contact with Marshall Jyn Andor. She gave me a little information that I am allowed to pass on to you. You are not to pass on this information to anyone. Is that clear?” she asked pointedly.

“Perfectly clear,” Poe responded.

“I understand,” Leia stated nervously.

Zorii took a deep breath and began the short tale she was allowed to give. “Long story short – Rey and Ben are both in witness protection in an undisclosed location with undisclosed people. Pretty much all I can say is that they are alive and well but unable to come home right now. They will have to tell you the rest when they are released from witness protection. I was also allowed to tell you that should something happen to either of them, Agents Jyn or Cassian will be in contact with you.”

There was a collective sight of relief around the room. They had been desperate for any news and now they had it, but Zorii wasn’t quite done. She extended the envelope she held to them.

“After you have seen this, hide what is in it. The marshals allowed it because it will give away nothing, but we don’t want to take any chances,” she commanded.

Leia nodded in understanding as she took the envelope and opened it. Inside were two polaroid photos. The first appeared to be the side of Rey’s neck since there was a scar running down it. Next to the scar was what looked like a soulmate mark in the shape of a butterfly. At the bottom of the picture was written the word “safe” in what appeared to be Ben’s perfect cursive.

The next picture had Leia crying. It was a picture of just the silhouette of a man and woman on a balcony overlooking a body of water. Anyone else might not have recognized either person in the photo, but Leia knew good and well what her son looked like. He and the woman that she assumed was Rey were wrapped up in each other’s arms. Her hand flew up over her mouth as she recognized the location that picture was taken in – Varykino, Hawaii.

To most people, it would look like a vacation destination, and truly it was. In the Skywalker family though, it was so much more. It was safety. It was the place where her parents had met when FBI Agent Anakin Skywalker was assigned to protect Senator Padme Amidala after an attempt was made on her life. Varykino was a veritable fortress in the disguise of a vacation location.

Many agencies had approached Leia over the years seeking permission to use it as a safe house, but she had never granted them that permission. A few years back, she had turned over the title to the estate to Ben hoping that he would use it for a much-needed vacation. This was certainly not what she had in mind, but at least he was able to put the place to good use.

Poe held Leia in a comforting embrace as they looked at the two pictures. There was a message written at the bottom of each. The picture that had Rey’s soulmate mark included the word “safe” written in Ben’s perfect cursive. At the bottom of the picture of the couple was written in Rey’s slightly messy scrawl the word “together.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you enjoyed a little Poe and Zorii in this chapter. I will see you guys again real soon for the epilogue!!

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and Kudos are always welcome and appreciated! Thanks for reading!


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